dialectal

Dialectal refers to dialects, which are regional or social varieties of a language distinguished by characteristic features in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Dialects may differ from a standard or codified form and can range from closely related to highly divergent forms that remain mutually intelligible to varying degrees.

In linguistics, dialectology is the study of dialectal variation across geographic areas and social groups. Researchers document phonological shifts, lexical items, and syntactic constructions that characterize particular dialects, often using fieldwork, elicitation tasks, and audio recordings to create descriptive corpora.

Dialectal features are not inherently nonstandard; many are rule-governed and stable within a speech community. They can function as markers of regional or social identity and may be preserved alongside other varieties in bilingual or bidialectal speakers. Attitudes toward dialectal forms can be descriptive or evaluative, depending on context.

Examples of dialectal variation include distinct pronunciations (such as regional vowel shifts), dialect-specific lexemes, or grammatical constructions that differ from the standard language. The boundary between dialect and language is sometimes political as well as linguistic, which affects how a form is labeled in different communities.

See also: dialect, dialectology, sociolect, language variation.