Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The language or speech of a particular place, such as a country, region, village, or valley, especially.
- noun Any of the Sinitic languages, such as Mandarin or Cantonese.
- noun Any of the regional and local varieties of one of the Sinitic languages, such one of the dialects of Mandarin.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A set of similar
dialects that pertain to a largerdistinct regional dialect.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[topo– + (dia)lect (translation of Chinese (Mandarin) fāngyán, regional speech : fāng, place + yán, language).]
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Examples
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Some Beijing partisans claim that càiniǎo 菜鳥 comes from Pekingese, because cài 菜 (lit., "vegetable") can mean "bad, weak" in Beijing topolect.
Language Log 2010
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English as "dialect," the Chinese word means simply "topolect," i.e., the speech pattern of a place, be it large or small)!
Language Log 2010
vanishedone commented on the word topolect
'What Is a Chinese "Dialect/Topolect"? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English Linguistic Terms': 'Unfortunate arguments have erupted, for example, over whether Taiwanese is a Chinese language or a Chinese dialect... As an initial step in the right direction, the author proposes the adoption of "topolect" as an exact, neutral translation of fangyan.'
April 20, 2008