dialectology

9.6

Study of how people speak in different places or groups

noun
/ˌdaɪəˈlɛktɑlədʒi/

Specialized

: dialectología

The university offers a course in dialectology that examines how language changes in various social contexts.

Examples

Linguists often focus on regional differences in speech for their research in dialectology.
Literature was even described as a "dialect" and held to be an object of study to which the methods of general dialectology should be applied (see Jakobson's work on Khlebnikov).

Academic text (2003)
She decided to specialize in dialectology to study how accents vary across different parts of England.

Synonyms

linguistics

vsdialectology

Specialized

21 5.0

The study of how language works, including sounds, word meaning, and how people make sentences

focuses specifically on regional and social varieties within a single language

dialect geography

vsdialectology

Specialized

8.8

The study of how language varies across places

includes social variation and studies varieties within a single language

linguistic geography

vsdialectology

Specialized

7.4

Study that shows how words and sounds vary across places, usually on maps

also examines social variation and focuses on varieties inside one language

sociolinguistics

vsdialectology

Specialized

7.9

Study of how people use language in different social and cultural groups

adds geographic mapping and studies varieties within one language

How Broad

cross-linguistically

Specialized

8.1

dialectology

Specialized

9.6

intralinguistic

Specialized

9.9

Surface Forms

dialectology singular

dialectologies plural

Morphology

dialectology = dialect (transparent) = dialect + ology

The word is transparently built from 'dialect' and the study suffix '-ology', so a learner who knows the base can infer the meaning.

Etymology

The word dialectology combines dialect, meaning 'way of speaking', and the ending -ology, meaning 'study', the same ending you see in biology or geology. So dialectology is the study of different ways of speaking in regions or social groups.