Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Dialect
Di′a-lect
,Noun.
1.
Means or mode of expressing thoughts; language; tongue; form of speech.
This book is writ in such a
As may the minds of listless men affect.
The universal
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 characterized 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.
Webster 1828 Edition
Dialect
DIALECT
,Noun.
1.
The form or idiom of a language, peculiar to a province, or to a kingdom or state; consisting chiefly in differences of orthography or pronunciation. The Greek language is remarkable for four dialects, the Attic, Iionic, Doric and Eolic. A dialect is the branch of a parent language, with such local alterations as time, accident and revolutions may have introduced among descendants of the same stock or family, living in separate or remote situations. But in regard to a large portion of words, many languages, which are considered as distinct, are really dialects of one common language.2.
Language; speech, or manner of speaking.