Dialect clusters

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A dialect cluster or dialect bundle is a group of closely related and geographically neighboring language varieties (“ dialects ”), the individual elements of which do not have the status of independent languages. The combination of the elements of a dialect cluster does not necessarily result in a “language”, since neighboring varieties of a cluster are mutually understandable, but geographically more distant varieties do not have to be mutually understandable. The term dialect continuum is related, but not identical (see below).

Example: A dialect cluster ABCD with mutual intelligibility of AB, BC, CD, weakened intelligibility of AC, BD, but lack of mutual intelligibility AD. A concrete example is the “language” Fulfulde or Fulani belonging to the Niger-Congo , which in reality forms a huge dialect cluster in West Africa with more than 20 million speakers.

In genetic classification, dialect clusters are usually treated like languages. E.g. Enneqor-Silte-Wolane-Urbareg-Zway form a cluster within the southern Ethiopian languages, which is bundled into a language-like unit with the artificial name Ost-Gurage . As a whole, the cluster is related to the Harari or Adare and forms with them a branch of the “transversal” South Ethiopian (see Semitic languages ).

The term “ dialect continuum ” must be distinguished from the “dialect cluster ”. Every dialect cluster is also a dialect continuum, but in contrast to the dialect cluster, dialect continua can also exist within one or more languages ​​( umbrella languages ). (E.g. the North Indian dialect continuum within the Indo-Aryan languages; here each dialect is assigned to a specific language, which is often arbitrary in the case of transition dialects.)

Examples of dialect clusters in the following articles

literature