murteellinen

Murteellinen is a Finnish adjective meaning “dialectal” or “relating to a murre (dialect).” It is used in linguistics to describe features that belong to a regional or social variety of Finnish that differs from the standard language. The term can refer to phonological, lexical, or syntactic elements that are typical of a particular dialect rather than of standard Finnish.

Etymology: Murteellinen is formed from the noun murre, meaning dialect, plus the suffix -ellinen, which yields adjectives meaning “pertaining to” or “characteristic of.” The corresponding adverb is murteellisesti.

Usage: In scholarly writing, murteellinen is used to classify data as murteellinen, for example murteellinen sanonta (a dialectal expression) or murteellinen ääntäminen (dialectal pronunciation). It helps distinguish regional variation from everyday nonstandard usage and from the standard language.

Scope: Murteellinen does not imply a lack of legitimacy; dialectal forms are legitimate varieties with their own history and rules. The term is mainly used in linguistic descriptions and discussions of variation within Finnish.

See also: murre (dialect), standard Finnish, language variation, Finnish dialectology.