dialectos

Forms

dialectos f (genitive dialectī); second declension^[1] Also spelled dialectus.^[2][3][4] The Greek accusative dialecton occurs in Neo-Latin.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek διάλεκτος (diálektos, “conversation; way of speaking, dialect”).^[6][7][8][1] The Greek word is from διαλέγομαι (dialégomai, “to converse”), made of διά (diá, “across, between”) and λέγω (légō, “to speak”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Quintilian is the first to use it, of a form of speech; elsewhere he gives the word in Greek letters.^[6][3][8]

Semantic evolution

Suetonius tells of a man who asked which dialect it was that sounded so tiresome, and was told it was the Doric (Doridem).^[6][3] Terentianus Maurus speaks of the Aeolic dialect, and Probus, writing on Virgil's Eclogues, treats Doric as a rustic dialect.^[3][4]

In Neo-Latin it was used more broadly of a language or of a person's way of speaking.^[5] Through French it became English dialect,^[9] and Italian dialetto goes back to it.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a form of speech.^[6][8]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius has the story of the tiresome Doric dialect.^[6][8]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Terentianus Maurus speaks of the Aeolic dialect.^[4][8]
• 1570s – English borrows it, through French, as dialect.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dialect, a regional form of a language, especially of Greek.^[6][2][1]
2. A way of speaking, form of speech.^[6][3]
3. (New Latin) A language, idiom; a person's manner of expression.^[5]

Related words

• English dialect

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier