ABSTRACT
A dialect is a variant of a language that is recognizable in terms of specific differential features that evolve according to where it is spoken geographically and who speaks it. The line between a “dialect” and a “language” is rarely clear-cut, however. The test that linguists use is that of mutual intelligibility, which implies that if speakers of different codes understand one another as they speak, then it is highly likely that their two codes are dialects of a common language. This chapter looks at geographically based variation. This includes not only the study of regional dialects, but also language admixture, bilingualism, and diglossia, defined as the social allocation of prestige to a specific dialect.
