Supradialect

Not to be confused with Subdialect.

Supradialect (from Latin supra, "above", and Ancient Greek διάλεκτος, "discourse") is a linguistic term designating a dialectological category between the levels of language and dialect. 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 pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language, which is divided into three basic supradialects (Shtokavian, Kajkavian and Chakavian), 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 used variant of 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 an interdialect.

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. ISBN 9789532600544.
• Greenberg, Robert D. (2004). Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and its Disintegration. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191514555.
• Harlig, Jeffrey; Pléh, Csaba, eds. (1995). When East Met West: Sociolinguistics in the Former Socialist Bloc. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110145854.
• 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).