Isogloss

Common card · No. 403484

An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Isoglosses are a subject of study in dialectology, in which they demarcate the differences between regional dialects of a language; in areal linguistics, in which they represent the extent of borrowing of features between languages in contact with one another; and in the wave model of historical linguistics, in which they indicate the similarities and differences between members of a language family. In dialect geography, isogloss may refer either to the area in which a feature predominates or to the boundary line drawn on a map to enclose that area. Isoglosses of different linguistic phenomena rarely coincide completely; by crossing and interweaving they can form intricate patterns on dialect maps, and transition zones are common. Major dialects are typically demarcated by...

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