Dialect can be a powerful tool to help writers bring the characters they have created to life. A writer might use dialect, along with accent, to distinguish a character’s unique way of speaking—and in doing so, illustrate their place of origin, cultural background, or social class.

The definition of a dialect is a variety of a language which has different pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary than the standard language of the culture. An example of dialect is Cantonese to the Chinese language. The language peculiar to the members of a group, especially in an occupation; jargon.

Dialect is a very powerful and common way of characterization, which elaborates the geographic and social background of any character.

Language is the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way. Dialect is a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group.

A dialect is generally a particular form of a language which is specific to a region or social group and usually has differences in pronunciation, grammar, syntax and vocabulary. It’s still a bit fuzzy to understand because dialects can be spoken by people living in one particular town or by a whole nation.

Historically, when two dialects are in close enough continuous contact with each other, they will often remain mutually intelligible. With enough separation in time and space, though, dialects will eventually turn into separate languages as the two become more and more distinct.

According to many linguists, a dialect becomes a language when it is no longer mutually intelligible between the dialect speakers and speakers of the “original” language.

If two groups of speakers from the original language were isolated for these lengths of time, the resulting dialects would probably be considered new languages. So the lower limit is probably 500 years and a reasonable limit would be 1000 years for a language to have diverged enough to be mutually incomprehensible.

Dialects can be associated not only with place but also with particular social groups. Within a given English-speaking country, there is a form of the language considered to be Standard English: the Standard Englishes of different countries differ and can themselves be considered dialects.

So no, American English cannot be a dialect of British English as there is no such thing. It is, however, a dialect of English, although deliberately introduced changes in the American spelling and grammar mean that it is less like the true English Language than many of the other international dialects.

Hiberno-English (from Latin Hibernia: “Ireland”) or Irish English (Ulster Scots: Erse Inglis, Irish: Béarla na hÉireann) is the set of English dialects natively written and spoken within the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland).

But fear not! Because as this post is going to explain, French is actually one of the easiest European languages to learn. In many ways, it’s even easier than learning English! And as French is a world language, spoken by over 220 million people, learning French can give you access to a huge chunk of the world.

The short, practical answer is that we can’t learn a language just by watching some foreign-language TV show without subtitles. We can’t learn just by listening to the radio either.

Without subtitles, words in the dialogue can seem to run together, but seeing them written out can help you identify where one word stops and the next word starts. It’s also a great opportunity to learn new words in context. The one-two punch of seeing and hearing the dialogue is a great way to absorb new vocabulary.

Studies have shown that babies cannot learn a language from watching television, even educational programming, and that screen time before the age of 2 can actually delay language development. Babies learn their first, and any additional languages, through face-to-face interactions with caretakers.

There is now increasing evidence that language learners can improve their comprehension skills, pronunciation and grammar through watching TV. Research reveals that language learners who frequently watch foreign-language TV programs outside of school tend to be better at reading, listening and vocabulary.