What is the Difference between Dialect and Accent?!

[Bright One]

Now, I got it

Many thanks

[Katsumoto]

thanks ......

[stuartnz]

Originally Posted by Anglika

Certainly if two people grow up speaking the same dialect, they will have the same accent.

Not necessarily. For example, NZ currently has only one "dialect", but in the southern part of the South Island, there is a distinctive accent. For a long time, it was NZ's only regional accent, and it is an instant marker of where someone's from, even though the vocabulary and grammar are the same as the rest of NZ English. Here's a related article

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by stuartnz

Not necessarily. For example, NZ currently has only one "dialect", but in the southern part of the South Island, there is a distinctive accent. For a long time, it was NZ's only regional accent, and it is an instant marker of where someone's from, even though the vocabulary and grammar are the same as the rest of NZ English. Here's a related article

I think you have slightly misunderstood. Round here we have a dialect. Those who speak that dialect have the same accent. Regional dialects have different accents, so that a Yorkshire accent is different from a Norfolk one, but each region will speak a dialect unique to the region.

It is not the same thing as the varying accents on standard English forms.

[stuartnz]

Originally Posted by Anglika

I think you have slightly misunderstood. Round here we have a dialect. Those who speak that dialect have the same accent. Regional dialects have different accents, so that a Yorkshire accent is different from a Norfolk one, but each region will speak a dialect unique to the region.

It is not the same thing as the varying accents on standard English forms.

I did not misunderstand. According to the first two definitions of "dialect" in the OED, NZ English, and indeed any other variant can be so described:

Manner of speaking, language, speech; esp. a manner of speech peculiar to, or characteristic of, a particular person or class

One of the subordinate forms or varieties of a language arising from local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation, and idiom.

\

I stand by my earlier statement that NZ English is a dialect with more than one accent.

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by stuartnz

I did not misunderstand. According to the first two definitions of "dialect" in the OED, NZ English, and indeed any other variant can be so described:
\

I stand by my earlier statement that NZ English is a dialect with more than one accent.

Not even linguists agree on this nomenclature; some refuse to use the terms language and dialect to define a variety.
I would call the Southland dialect different from the standard NZ dialect because it also has vocabulary differences, eg. still uses "wee" from Scottish, and perhaps some grammatical differences. Or you could call them two varieties of the same dialect. If you insist that NZE has to be a dialect, and that New Zealand only has one dialect (excluding Maori), then Southland could be a sub-dialect.

[Nikks02]

Hi, I posted this reply in another thread. I hope it's useful to you.
Accent is a very distinctive, strong oral

expression. It is heard when a person speaks,

and is that person's way of stressing certain

syllables in speaking. An accent can be

easily picked up in the way a person will

place emphasis in a speech pattern. You can

tell the country a person belongs to by their

accent, e.g. "Her strong German accent was not

hard to miss." You can also tell the social

class a person belongs to by their accent,

e.g. "Miss Gwyneth spoke in her distinctive,

highfalutin accent."

While accent is a person's strong emphasis on

certain syllables, dialect on the other hand

can be explained as the way a specific group

of people use language. Therefore their

grammar, pronunciation of words, and their

vocabulary will associate them with a

particular region or social class. For

example, the words used in language or

speaking can be changed, by spelling them or

pronouncing them differently, so that only

people from that particular region or class

will understand it. In my country for

example, standard english will say" I don't

like her very much." However, in our dialect

we might say instead, "I doh like she nah."

Same meaning, but different grammar and

pronounciation, and spelling. This type of

speech however is only used in common, or

private settings, not public settings. Hope

this helps.