What is a dialect exactly?

Kevin Anderson

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “dialect” means a “regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language”.  It also includes the definition “a variety of language whose identity is fixed by a factor other than geography (such as social class)”.  The first definition includes three items.  Must all three factors be present to determine one dialect from another?  In today’s digital world, can dialects form across geographical boundaries? 

In some literature, dialect is put into broad and general regions and puts Canada into basically one major dialect area from Montreal to Vancouver Island, and then another for the East Coast.  I wonder how different one’s grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation need to be to be considered a regional dialect variety?  With internet communication, boundaries are blurred and people’s language is influenced by other dialect varieties around the world.  Also, there are long histories of homogenous and heterogenous communities who contribute to the variety of English dialects at more local levels.

This site was made by a linguistics hobbyist that focuses on regional dialects, some confined to very small geographical areas.  However, Aschmann focuses mostly on accents to make his claims about dialects.  Is accent alone enough to determine one’s dialect?  Are there not other factors that influence one’s dialect.  For example, someone from New Jersey spends four years studying in Montreal, but has also taught overseas for six years with colleagues from several other countries and regions.  With internet communication on top of that, will people’s pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary shift into a more standard variety in the future?

The second definition mentions dialect as the result of other factors including social class.  What are these other factors that influence dialect?  Can a dialect be temporary depending on who we are talking to or where we are?  Even within the city of Montreal, there are different ways of speaking.  This article from the Montreal Gazette discusses the way Montrealers speak.  You may agree or disagree.  What do you think?

Growing up in Montreal, I could sometimes tell from which neighbourhood someone is from, but it is not black and white.  It also depends on cultural background, social influence, education and history.  I noticed, however, how people spoke differently in my neighbourhood from below the tracks compared to those from above the tracks.  I can tell where someone is from, but then again I do not want to generalize.

Is there one way that people speak all the time to everyone they are speaking to?  Probably not.  If you are hanging out in your neighbourhood, you may change the way you speak compared to when you are in a different neighbourhood.  At school and at work you will speak differently as well.  But that depends with whom you are speaking with.

As a teacher, I believe it is important for my students to be aware of the different dialects that exist in their neighbourhood, between regions and around the world. They should also be made aware of social justice issues related to dialects that are traditionally less desired at the workplace or in educational institutions. Students should be proud of their own dialects and this should not limit what they are capable of at school or at the workplace in the future.