What is the Difference between Dialect and Accent?!

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Bright One

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Hello everybody :)

I have searched about this issue and did not find a detailed explanation of this, since I could not apply it by examples to be clearer!


I hope you can help me :roll:

Thank you in advance
 

Anglika

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Dialect = a form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group { from the Greek dialektos "discourse, way of speaking"}

Two examples of dialect in Britain are Yorkshire http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/ and Lowland Scots http://www.scots-online.org/reader/index.htm

Accent = a way of pronouncing a language, associated with a country, area, or social class, an emphasis given to a syllable, word, or note.{from the Latin accentus "tone, signal, or intensity"}.

A person from Birmingham will have a different accent from a person from London.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A496352

Dialect can have words that are unique to itself and variant grammatical structures; Accents are variations in the way English is spoken.

You might find this site interesting: http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/regional-voices/
 
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Bright One

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A496352
Dialect can have words that are unique to itself and variant grammatical structures; Accents are variations in the way English is spoken.
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/regional-voices/

First of all, Thanks for the fast reply. I think these red words were all I wanted.

Second, now, did I got it if I say: if I live with another person in the same place, we usually have the same dialect, and as a result, we act similar accents. Also, dialect is concerned with
words that are familiar in a specific place but not in another, but accent is concerned with the pronunciation of words and the latter is considered to be a developed stage of the former? I.e. in someway, it's almost necessary if someone and I have the same dialect to have the same accent?

Thanks
 

Anglika

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First of all, Thanks for the fast reply. I think these red words were all I wanted.

Second, now, did I got it if I say: if I live with another person in the same place, we usually have the same dialect, and as a result, we act similar accents. Also, dialect is concerned with
words that are familiar in a specific place but not in another, but accent is concerned with the pronunciation of words and the latter is considered to be a developed stage of the former? I.e. in someway, it's almost necessary if someone and I have the same dialect to have the same accent?

Thanks

I don't think you can say that accent is a "developed stage" of dialect. They are part of the same thing. Certainly if two people grow up speaking the same dialect, they will have the same accent.

I have been trying to think of a comparison in Arabic, and suggest that the accent used by someone from Damascus may be different from that used by someone from Cairo, though the language is identical.
 

Bright One

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I don't think you can say that accent is a "developed stage" of dialect. They are part of the same thing. Certainly if two people grow up speaking the same dialect, they will have the same accent.

I have been trying to think of a comparison in Arabic, and suggest that the accent used by someone from Damascus may be different from that used by someone from Cairo, though the language is identical.

Ok, in general, dialect and accent are related to each other regarding a specific place though they are different in function!

As you said in your example of Damascus and Cairo, the language is Arabic but the dialects differ and this is obviously clear. I can now form them as follows: language is the root -> dialects <-> accents. But what I was confused about is that structures in dialects differ from one another, while I was comparing between dialects, I found no clear differences between structures although there are many differences in words. Dialects also, as I understood the meaning of dialect, exist in different regions at one country .
 

Anglika

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Ok, in general, dialect and accent are related to each other regarding a specific place though they are different in function!

As you said in your example of Damascus and Cairo, the language is Arabic but the dialects differ [This will be true if there are different words and different grammatical structures used in each place. However, if the Arabic spoken uses identical words and grammar, but sounds different, then the difference is an accent and not a dialect.]and this is obviously clear. I can now form them as follows: language is the root -> dialects <-> accents. But what I was confused about is that structures in dialects differ from one another, while I was comparing between dialects, I found no clear differences between structures although there are many differences in words. Dialects also, as I understood the meaning of dialect, exist in different regions at one country[True].

Dialects often have slightly different language roots from the Standard language. In Yorkshire, for instance, the dialectical structures and words come from Old Norse via the Vikings who settled there and controlled the region for centuries.

Standard English, which is what developed in the south of England and eventually spread through the entire country, stems from Anglo-Saxon and Norman French. They have slightly different sources.
 

Bright One

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Sorry, but I wanted to ask if I can say that BrE and AmE are two dialects of English language as they differ in some vocabulary and rules of grammar?
 

Anglika

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Well now - that is a leading question.;-)

I think the answer is probably technically yes.
 

Bright One

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Now, I got it :lol:

Many thanks
 

stuartnz

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.
 
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