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In a dialect continuum, neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but differences mount with distance, so that more widely separated varieties may not be mutually intelligible. Intelligibility can be partial, as is the case with Azerbaijani and Turkish , or significant, as is the case with Bulgarian and Macedonian .
Subgroup (片 piàn), which may be mutually unintelligible with other subgroups [note 3] Cluster (小片 xiǎopiàn), which may be mutually unintelligible with other clusters; Local dialect (点 diǎn), which are the dialects sampled by the Atlas; In the list below, [8] local dialects are not listed. Groups are in bold, subgroups are numbered ...
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varieties may not be. [1]
For example, the varieties of Mandarin spoken in all three northeastern Chinese provinces are mutually intelligible, but in the province of Fujian, where Min varieties predominate, the speech of neighbouring counties or even villages may be mutually unintelligible.
Dialects can be classified at broader or narrower levels: within a broad national or regional dialect, various more localised sub-dialects can be identified, and so on. The combination of differences in pronunciation and use of local words may make some English dialects almost unintelligible to speakers from other regions without any prior ...
The language indigenous to Sardinia, while being Romance in nature, is considered to be a specific linguistic family of its own, separate from the other Neo-Latin groups; it is often subdivided into the Centro-Southern and Centro-Northern dialects. Though mostly mutually unintelligible, the exact degree to which all the Italian languages are ...
It is difficult to define what constitutes a language as opposed to a dialect. For example, Chinese and Arabic are sometimes considered single languages, but each includes several mutually unintelligible varieties , and so they are sometimes considered language families instead.
Dialectologist Jerry Norman estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible Sinitic languages. [11] They form a dialect continuum in which differences generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though there are also some sharp boundaries. [12]