Dialect refers to a variety of language that is a characteristic of a particular group or in a certain geographical area and has complete system of verbal communication, with its own vocabulary, speech pattern, accent, grammar and syntax.
A variety of language associated with certain social class is called ‘sociolect’ such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, a working sector, etc. On the other hand, if a variety of language is identified with regional characteristics it is termed as ‘topolect’ or ‘regiolect.’
Since a dialect has a whole set of communication system, if the difference between two dialects are only in tonal patterns and pronunciations, the distinction is called ‘accent’ instead of dialect differences.
Moreover, social subordination is also being applied in defining dialect. If a language is supported by an institution, usually a cognate to country’s history, a certain language variety is then designated as the standard language and consequently minimizes the significance of other variety of languages. The latter are then termed as non-standard dialects.
