This is a
list of varieties of the English language. Dialects are
linguistic varieties which differ in
pronunciation,
vocabulary and
grammar from each other and from
Standard English (which is itself a dialect).
British linguists distinguish dialect from accent, which refers only to pronunciation. Thus, any educated English speaker can use the vocabulary and grammar of Standard English, but different speakers use their own regional accent, or Received Pronunciation, which within the U.K. is considered an accent distinguished by class rather than by region. American linguists, however, include pronunciation differences as part of the definition of regional or social dialects (better called varieties).
International classifications
By continent
Europe
North America
Caribbean
Central and South America
Asia
Africa
Oceania
Constructed
Manual encodings
These encoding systems should not be confused with sign languages
such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language.
"Lishes"
The following are
portmanteaus devised to describe certain local
variants of English. Although similarly named, they are actually quite
different in nature, with some being genuine
mixed languages, some
being instances of heavy
code-switching between English and another
language, some being genuine local dialects of English used by
first-language English speakers, and some being non-native
pronunciations of English. A few portmanteaus (such as
Greeklish
and
Pinglish) are
transliteration methods rather than any kind
of spoken variant of English.
See also
References
External links