What is the difference between accents and dialects?

Question

I'm writing an essay for college about the history of the English language. I'm having a difficult time understanding the difference between the different accents in England before the Norman conquest and the different dialects in England after the Norman conquest. Could someone help explain the difference between accents and dialects? My dictionary only says that accents are different styles of pronunciation and dialects are different forms of pronunciation... and this still leaves me confused.

Answer 1

Yes, I can see why you would be confused by your dictionary's definition on this topic.

Accent refers to the sounds that are present in a person's language. Pronunciation is basically a synonym of accent. Therefore, if I pronounce differently from someone, I have a different accent.

Dialect is something greater. A dialect is a version of a language that is special to a particular region or group. Dialects of the same language are different from each other, but still understandable to speakers of another dialect of that language. For example, American English and British English are two dialects of English. They have some differences, such as in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, but they are still understandable to each other.

In your specific question, then, differences between dialects includes more than just differences in pronunciation. I suppose that the reason your dictionary isn't precise on this is that accent(pronunciation) is often a pretty noticeable feature of dialect. In other words, if I am interacting with a speaker of another dialect of my language, I will probably notice it first because of the differences in accent.

Answer 2

Accent Vs Dialect

Answer 3

Dialect Vs Accent

Answer 4

In the simplest of terms. Which I use on a day to day basis for my trainees. An accent is nothing more than the manner and ability to articulate words which are being pronounced. On the other hand a dialect is the more or less the accent of a particular region. E.g. People in the UK do speak in English, however, a person from London, has a different accent comparatively to a person from Liverpool. Another example would be a person for New York, would speak differently compared to a person from Mississippi. Hope that explains the difference between dialects and accents.

Answer 5

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What is the difference between accents and dialects?
I'm writing an essay for college about the history of the English language. I'm having a difficult time understanding the difference between the different accents in England before the Norman conquest and the different dialects in England after the Norman conquest. Could someone help...

Answer 6

Accent means slightly different pronunciation (does not matter if it is foreign language or native language) and dialect means different words. In China although nearly everybody speaks Mandarin they will all speak it with a slightly different accent depending which part of the country they come form. Much like somebody from Texas sounds different to somebody from New York even though they are both speaking English. Dialects is a bit trickier. How many words have to be different enough before it is regarded as a seperate language ? Linguists argue about this all the time.

Answer 7

Dialect:

a. A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists: Cockney is a dialect of English.
b. A variety of language that with other varieties constitutes a single language of which no single variety is standard: the dialects of Ancient Greek.

Accent:

A characteristic pronunciation, especially:
a. One determined by the regional or social background of the speaker.
b. One determined by the phonetic habits of the speaker's native language carried over to his or her use of another language.

So an accent is basically how a region pronounces the same language as is spoken in another region, as in New York accent, or Midwest accent: everybody understands everybody because it is English, just with somewhat different ways of saying certain things.

A dialect then is a wholly different way of using the main language, not just having a different tone - a dialect would be the main language, but changed in the way it put words in order, and have different words for things, and would pronounce words very differently, not so much as to be another language, but enough that it would be hard for the regular language users to understand. There are still quite a few dialects of English in England.

Answer 8

An accent is one's particular way of pronouncing a language. Everyone has an accent.

A dialect is a way of using a language. Everyone has a dialect.

Answer 9

my accent is how I say something but my dialect are the words I use.

Accents may be difficult but to another native language speaker should still be understandable. A dialect may use words that are incomprehensible to me and may almost be a different language. for example I can understand a person from Yorkshire until they lapse into their dialect and use words that have never been used in England generally. (Im thinking here of how sheep were counted at one time)

Answer 10

Your accent shows people where you come from like Birmingham or Liverpool , they have very pronounced accents. The dialect is a way of speaking , like a type of slang, like cockney, or Derbyshire slang. Most areas of Britain have an accent and a dialect. I love accents and I use Derbyshire slang at home all the time, not anywhere else though because people just don't understand me.