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Dialect

1. Means or mode of expressing thoughts; language; tongue; form of speech. This book is writ in such a dialect as may the minds of listless men affect. Bunyan. The universal dialect of the world. (South)

2. The form of speech of a limited region or people, as distinguished from ether forms nearly related to it; a variety or subdivision of a language; speech characterised by local peculiarities or specific circumstances; as, the ionic and attic were dialects of Greece; the Yorkshire dialect; the dialect of the learned. In the midst of this Babel of dialects there suddenly appeared a standard english language. (Earle) [Charles V] could address his subjects from every quarter in their native dialect. (Prescott)

Synonym: language, idiom, tongue, speech, phraseology. See language, and idiom.

Origin: f. Dialecte, L. Dialectus, fr. Gr, fr. To converse, discourse. See Dialogue.