Dialects and accents

In this portion, we will examine dialects and accents.

• An accent is the way that particular person or group of people sound. It’s the way somebody pronounces words, the musicality of their speech, etc. 
• A dialect describes both a person’s accent and the grammatical features of the way that person talks.  It includes grammar, syntax and vocabulary that is different from other versions of the same language.

So when a Limburger speaks standard Dutch, he is speaking with a Limburg accent, but when  he speaks Limburgs, he is speaking a dialect.

Dialects (and accents) evolve in time as linguistic communities that are relatively far apart have little contact with each other. An example of this is the dialect of the midlands of England, around Liverpool and Birmingham, which evolved over centuries when travel between the midlands and the Southeast, where London is, was far apart.  But they also evolve between linguistic communities that have very little contact, although they are close together, such as the Cockney dialect of lower-class London vs the dialect of the upper class.

Dialects also evolve when a community of speakers of one language adopt another.  An example of this is the accent of the Northeast of England, where the dialect (and accent) evolved when the Vikings who had settled there adopted English as their tongue.   Another example is the Irish dialect (and accent), which evolved when the native Irish were forced to abandon their own (Gaelic) language for English.

Depending on where you are in the US, the origin of the dialect will stem from one, other, or both of these.

Introduction to Dialects
A tongue-in-cheek look at dialects and accents
Dialects of English
Accents of English
Last remaining speaker of a dialect dies