What is dialectology?

Dialectology is the branch of linguistics that studies regional and social variations in language, specifically focusing on dialects. A dialect is a distinct form of a language spoken by a particular group, often defined by geographic, social, or ethnic boundaries.

Dialectologists examine differences in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and usage among dialects within a language. They often study how dialects evolve, how they are distributed geographically (dialect maps), and how social factors like class, age, and gender influence dialectal variation.

Dialectology also explores the relationships between standard languages and dialects, the processes of language change, and how mutual intelligibility works between different dialects of the same language.