topolect

noun

1. The speech form, variety (lect) of a particular place or region.

   We can then establish and name further categories by means of the word "group" and the prefix "sub-", thus obtaining SUBDIALECT ("Untermundart") between topolect and dialect, DIALECT GROUP ("Mundartengruppe") between dialect and language, SUBFAMILY ("Unterfamilie") between language and family,

2. A regional variety of Chinese; especially a lect other than Standard Mandarin.

   Imminent Chinese linguist Zhou Youguang has said that everyone’s mother tongue is a topolect, whereas China’s standard spoken language has long been the “teacher tongue.”

Where it comes from

Combination of topo- (“place”) + -lect (“[language] variety”). Attested since the 1960s, but rare until its introduction by sinologist Victor Mair in 1991 to distinguish Chinese 方言 (fāngyán) from English dialect.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry topolect (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← toparchytormina →

Another random word More words starting with T