Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Dialect
(1,948 words)

1. Definition

Dialects are closely related idioms, therefore generally mutually comprehensible, that are used primarily in speech and confined to a geographical region, and that together form a language. In comparison to the written and spoken standard forms of the language that are common to them, dialects are characterized in a synchronic context by the fact that they deviate most strongly from the standard form on all linguistic levels (phonemic and formal repertoire,…

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Wiesinger, Peter and Viereck, Wolfgang, “Dialect”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_018286>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170626



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