Supradialect

Not to be confused withSubdialect.

Supradialect(from Latinsupra,"above", andAncient Greekδιάλεκτος,"discourse" ) is alinguisticterm designating adialectologicalcategory between the levels oflanguageanddialect.It is used in two distinctive contexts, describing structural or functional relations within a particular language. As a structural category, supradialects designate the first level of dialectological subdivision within a language,as for example in the pluricentricSerbo-Croatianlanguage, which is divided into three basic supradialects (Shtokavian,KajkavianandChakavian), with each of them being further divided into several dialects.As a functional category, supradialect designates a predominant dialectal form within a particular language, referring to the most commonly usedvariantof that language, accepted in practice by the majority of its speakers as a basic tool of mutual interaction and communication. In that context, such supradialect also functions as aninterdialect.

See also

• Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Dialectology
• Dialect
• Subdialect
• Dialect continuum
• Dialect levelling
• Variety (linguistics)
• Variation (linguistics)
• Common language
• Standard language
• Koiné language
• Interlanguage

Literature

• Baldaquí Escandell, Josep M. (2005)."A Contribution to the Study of Valencian Linguistic Secessionism: Relations between the Perception of the Supradialectal Unity of the Catalan Language and Other Sociolinguistic Variables".Catalan Review.19:47–58.doi:10.3828/CATR.19.5.hdl:10045/4347.
• Badurina, Lada; Pranjković, Ivo; Silić, Josip, eds. (2009).Jezični varijeteti i nacionalni identiteti: Prilozi proučavanju standardnih jezika utemeljenih na štokavštini.Zagreb: Disput.ISBN9789532600544.
• Greenberg, Robert D. (2004).Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and its Disintegration.New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN9780191514555.
• Harlig, Jeffrey; Pléh, Csaba, eds. (1995).When East Met West: Sociolinguistics in the Former Socialist Bloc.Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.ISBN9783110145854.
• Abdullah Hassan, "Pondering on a Malay Supradialect", Dewan Bahasa, 41 (1997), no. 10, p. 911-918.
• Yan Hong-Ming, "On the Supradialectal Function of the Chinese Characters", Journal of Lingnan Normal University, 4 (2002).