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<p>A <b>dialect continuum</b> or <b>dialect chain</b> is a series of <a href="Variety_(linguistics)" title="Variety (linguistics)">language varieties</a> spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are <a href="Mutual_intelligibility" title="Mutual intelligibility">mutually intelligible</a>, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varieties may not be.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This is a typical occurrence with widely spread languages and language families around the world, when these languages did not spread recently. Some prominent examples include the <a href="Indo-Aryan_languages" title="Indo-Aryan languages">Indo-Aryan languages</a> across large parts of <a href="India" title="India">India</a>, <a href="Varieties_of_Arabic" title="Varieties of Arabic">varieties of Arabic</a> across north Africa and southwest Asia, the <a href="Turkic_languages" title="Turkic languages">Turkic languages</a>, the <a href="Varieties_of_Chinese" title="Varieties of Chinese">varieties of Chinese</a>, and parts of the <a href="Romance_languages" title="Romance languages">Romance</a>, <a href="Germanic_languages" title="Germanic languages">Germanic</a> and <a href="Slavic_languages" title="Slavic languages">Slavic</a> families in Europe. Terms used in older literature include <b>dialect area</b> (<a href="Leonard_Bloomfield" title="Leonard Bloomfield">Leonard Bloomfield</a>)<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and <b>L-complex</b> (<a href="Charles_F._Hockett" title="Charles F. Hockett">Charles F. Hockett</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Dialect continua typically occur in long-settled agrarian populations, as innovations spread from their various points of origin as <a href="Wave_model" title="Wave model">waves</a>. In this situation, hierarchical classifications of varieties are impractical. Instead, <a href="Dialectology" title="Dialectology">dialectologists</a> map variation of various language features across a dialect continuum, drawing lines called <a href="Isogloss" title="Isogloss">isoglosses</a> between areas that differ with respect to some feature.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>A variety within a dialect continuum may be developed and codified as a <a href="Standard_language" title="Standard language">standard language</a>, and then serve as an authority for part of the continuum, e.g. within a particular political unit or geographical area.
Since the early 20th century, the increasing dominance of <a href="Nation-states" class="mw-redirect" title="Nation-states">nation-states</a> and their standard languages has been steadily eliminating the nonstandard dialects that comprise dialect continua, making the boundaries ever more abrupt and well-defined.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Dialect_geography">Dialect geography</h2></div>
<p>Dialectologists record variation across a dialect continuum using maps of various features collected in a <a href="Linguistic_atlas" class="mw-redirect" title="Linguistic atlas">linguistic atlas</a>, beginning with an atlas of <a href="German_dialects" title="German dialects">German dialects</a> by <a href="Georg_Wenker" title="Georg Wenker">Georg Wenker</a> (from 1888), based on a postal survey of schoolmasters. The influential <i><a href="Atlas_linguistique_de_la_France" title="Atlas linguistique de la France">Atlas linguistique de la France</a></i> (1902–10) pioneered the use of a trained fieldworker.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199815–17_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199815–17-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> These atlases typically consist of <i>display maps</i>, each showing local forms of a particular item at the survey locations.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199825_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199825-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Secondary studies may include <i>interpretive maps</i>, showing the areal distribution of various variants.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199825_6-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199825-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> A common tool in these maps is an <a href="Isogloss" title="Isogloss">isogloss</a>, a line separating areas where different variants of a particular feature predominate.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199827_7-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199827-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>In a dialect continuum, isoglosses for different features are typically spread out, reflecting the gradual transition between varieties.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199893–94_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199893–94-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> A bundle of coinciding isoglosses indicates a stronger dialect boundary, as might occur at geographical obstacles or long-standing political boundaries.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199894–95_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199894–95-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In other cases, intersecting isoglosses and more complex patterns are found.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199891–93_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199891–93-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Relationship_with_standard_varieties">Relationship with standard varieties</h2></div>
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</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="Autonomy_and_heteronomy_(sociolinguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Autonomy and heteronomy (sociolinguistics)">Autonomy and heteronomy (sociolinguistics)</a></div>
<p><a href="Standard_language" title="Standard language">Standard varieties</a> may be developed and codified at one or more locations in a continuum until they have independent cultural status (autonomy), a process the <a href="Germany" title="Germany">German</a> linguist <a href="Heinz_Kloss" title="Heinz Kloss">Heinz Kloss</a> called <i><a href="Abstand_and_ausbau_languages" title="Abstand and ausbau languages">ausbau</a></i>. Speakers of local varieties typically read and write a related standard variety, use it for official purposes, hear it on radio and television, and consider it the standard form of their speech, so that any standardizing changes in their speech are towards that variety. In such cases the local variety is said to be dependent on, or heteronomous with respect to, the standard variety.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill19989–12_12-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill19989–12-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>A standard variety together with its dependent varieties is commonly considered a "language", with the dependent varieties called "dialects" of the language, even if the standard is mutually intelligible with another standard from the same continuum.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199811_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199811-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The <a href="North_Germanic_language" class="mw-redirect" title="North Germanic language">Scandinavian languages</a>, <a href="Danish_language" title="Danish language">Danish</a>, <a href="Norwegian_language" title="Norwegian language">Norwegian</a> and <a href="Swedish_language" title="Swedish language">Swedish</a>, are often cited as examples.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill19983–4_15-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill19983–4-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Conversely, a language defined in this way may include local varieties that are mutually unintelligible, such as the <a href="German_dialects" title="German dialects">German dialects</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill19984_16-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill19984-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The choice of standard is often determined by a political boundary, which may cut across a dialect continuum.
As a result, speakers on either side of the boundary may use almost identical varieties, but treat them as dependent on different standards, and thus part of different "languages".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill19989_17-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill19989-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
The various local dialects then tend to be leveled towards their respective standard varieties, disrupting the previous dialect continuum.<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
Examples include the boundaries between <a href="Dutch_language" title="Dutch language">Dutch</a> and <a href="German_language" title="German language">German</a>, between <a href="Czech_language" title="Czech language">Czech</a>, <a href="Slovak_language" title="Slovak language">Slovak</a> and <a href="Polish_language" title="Polish language">Polish</a>, and between <a href="Belarusian_language" title="Belarusian language">Belarusian</a> and <a href="Ukrainian_language" title="Ukrainian language">Ukrainian</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The choice may be a matter of national, regional or religious identity, and may be controversial.
Examples of controversies are regions such as the disputed territory of <a href="Kashmir" title="Kashmir">Kashmir</a>, in which local <a href="Muslim" class="mw-redirect" title="Muslim">Muslims</a> usually regard their language as <a href="Urdu" title="Urdu">Urdu</a>, the national standard of <a href="Pakistan" title="Pakistan">Pakistan</a>, while <a href="Hinduism" title="Hinduism">Hindus</a> regard the same speech as <a href="Hindi" title="Hindi">Hindi</a>, an official standard of <a href="India" title="India">India</a>. Even so, the <a href="Languages_with_official_status_in_India" class="mw-redirect" title="Languages with official status in India">Eighth Schedule</a> to the Indian Constitution contains <a href="Languages_with_official_status_in_India" class="mw-redirect" title="Languages with official status in India">a list of 22 scheduled languages</a> and Urdu is among them.
</p><p>During the time of the former <a href="Socialist_Republic_of_Macedonia" title="Socialist Republic of Macedonia">Socialist Republic of Macedonia</a>, a standard was developed from local varieties of <a href="Eastern_South_Slavic" title="Eastern South Slavic">Eastern South Slavic</a>, within a continuum with <a href="Torlakian" class="mw-redirect" title="Torlakian">Torlakian</a> to the north and <a href="Bulgarian_language" title="Bulgarian language">Bulgarian</a> to the east. The standard was based on varieties that were most different from standard Bulgarian. Now known as <a href="Macedonian_language" title="Macedonian language">Macedonian</a>, it is the national standard of <a href="North_Macedonia" title="North Macedonia">North Macedonia</a>, but viewed by Bulgarians as a dialect of Bulgarian.<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Europe">Europe</h2></div>
<p>Europe provides several examples of dialect continua, the largest of which involve the <a href="Germanic_languages" title="Germanic languages">Germanic</a>, <a href="Romance_languages" title="Romance languages">Romance</a> and <a href="Slavic_languages" title="Slavic languages">Slavic</a> branches of the <a href="Indo-European_language_family" class="mw-redirect" title="Indo-European language family">Indo-European language family</a>, the continent's largest language branches.
</p><p>The Romance area spanned much of the territory of the <a href="Roman_Empire" title="Roman Empire">Roman Empire</a> but was split into western and eastern portions by the <a href="Slav_Migrations" class="mw-redirect" title="Slav Migrations">Slav Migrations</a> into the Balkans in the 7th and 8th centuries.
</p><p>The Slavic area was in turn split by the <a href="Hungarian_conquest_of_the_Carpathian_Basin" title="Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin">Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin</a> in the 9th and 10th centuries.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Germanic_languages">Germanic languages</h3></div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="North_Germanic_continuum">North Germanic continuum</h4></div>
<p>The <a href="Norwegian_dialects" title="Norwegian dialects">Norwegian</a>, <a href="Danish_dialects" title="Danish dialects">Danish</a> and <a href="Swedish_dialects" title="Swedish dialects">Swedish dialects</a> comprise a classic example of a dialect continuum, encompassing Norway, Denmark, Sweden and coastal parts of Finland. The Continental North Germanic standard languages (<a href="Norwegian_language" title="Norwegian language">Norwegian</a>, <a href="Danish_language" title="Danish language">Danish</a> and <a href="Swedish_language" title="Swedish language">Swedish</a>) are close enough and intelligible enough for some to consider them to be dialects of the same language, but the Insular ones (<a href="Faroese_language" title="Faroese language">Faroese</a> and <a href="Icelandic_language" title="Icelandic language">Icelandic</a>) are not immediately intelligible to the other North Germanic speakers.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Continental_West_Germanic_continuum">Continental West Germanic continuum</h4></div>
<p>Historically, the <a href="Dutch_dialects" class="mw-redirect" title="Dutch dialects">Dutch</a>, <a href="Frisian_languages" title="Frisian languages">Frisian</a>, <a href="Low_German" title="Low German">Low Saxon</a> and <a href="German_dialects" title="German dialects">High German dialects</a> formed a canonical dialect continuum, which has been gradually falling apart since the <a href="Late_Middle_Ages" title="Late Middle Ages">Late Middle Ages</a> due to the pressures of modern education, standard languages, migration and weakening knowledge of the dialects.<sup id="cite_ref-Niebaum_28-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Niebaum-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The transition from German dialects to Dutch variants followed two basic routes:
</p>
<ul><li>From <a href="Central_German" title="Central German">Central German</a> to Southeastern Dutch (<a href="Limburgish" title="Limburgish">Limburgish</a>) in the so-called <a href="Rhenish_fan" title="Rhenish fan">Rhenish fan</a>, an area corresponding largely to the modern <a href="Lower_Rhine_region" title="Lower Rhine region">Niederrhein</a> in which gradual but geographically compact changes took place.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199892_29-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199892-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li>
<li>From Low Saxon<sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>b<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> to Northwestern Dutch (<a href="Hollandic" class="mw-redirect" title="Hollandic">Hollandic</a>): This sub-continuum also included <a href="West_Frisian_language" title="West Frisian language">West Frisian</a> dialects up until the 17th century, but faced external pressure from <a href="Standard_Dutch" class="mw-redirect" title="Standard Dutch">Standard Dutch</a> and, after the collapse of the <a href="Hanseatic_League" title="Hanseatic League">Hanseatic League</a>, from <a href="Standard_German" title="Standard German">Standard German</a> which greatly influenced the vocabularies of these border dialects.<sup id="cite_ref-Niebaum_28-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Niebaum-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></li></ul>
<p>Although the internal dialect continua of both Dutch and German remain largely intact, the broader continuum that once connected Dutch, Frisian, and German has largely disintegrated. Fragmentary areas of the Dutch-German border in which language change is more gradual than in other sections or a higher degree of <a href="Mutual_intelligibility" title="Mutual intelligibility">mutual intelligibility</a> is present still exist, such as the <a href="Aachen" title="Aachen">Aachen</a>-<a href="Kerkrade" title="Kerkrade">Kerkrade</a> area, but the historical chain in which dialects were only divided by minor isoglosses and negligible differences in vocabulary has seen a rapid and ever-increasing decline since the 1850s.<sup id="cite_ref-Niebaum_28-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Niebaum-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p><a href="Standard_Dutch" class="mw-redirect" title="Standard Dutch">Standard Dutch</a> was based on the dialects of the principal <a href="Brabantian_dialect" class="mw-redirect" title="Brabantian dialect">Brabantic</a> and <a href="Hollandic_dialect" class="mw-redirect" title="Hollandic dialect">Hollandic</a> cities. The written form of <a href="Standard_German" title="Standard German">Standard German</a> originated in the <a href="East_Central_German" title="East Central German">East Central German</a> used at the <a href="Chancery_(medieval_office)" title="Chancery (medieval office)">chancery</a> of the <a href="Kingdom_of_Saxony" title="Kingdom of Saxony">kingdom of Saxony</a>, while the spoken form emerged later, based on North German pronunciations of the written standard.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Being based on widely separated dialects, the Dutch and German standards do not show a high degree of <a href="Mutual_intelligibility" title="Mutual intelligibility">mutual intelligibility</a> when spoken and only partially so when written. One study concluded that, when concerning written language, Dutch speakers could translate 50.2% of the provided German words correctly, while the German subjects were able to translate 41.9% of the Dutch equivalents correctly. In terms of orthography, 22% of the vocabulary of Dutch and German is identical or near-identical.<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Anglic_continuum">Anglic continuum</h4></div>
<p>The <a href="Anglic_languages" class="mw-redirect" title="Anglic languages">Germanic dialects spoken on the island of Great Britain</a> comprise areal varieties of English in England and of <a href="Scots_language" title="Scots language">Scots</a> in Scotland. Those of large areas north and south of the border are often mutually intelligible. In contrast, the <a href="Orcadian_dialect" title="Orcadian dialect">Orcadian dialect</a> of Scots is very different from the dialects of <a href="English_in_southern_England" class="mw-redirect" title="English in southern England">English in southern England</a>—but they are linked by a chain of intermediate varieties.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Romance_languages">Romance languages</h3></div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Western_Romance_continuum">Western Romance continuum</h4></div>
<p>The western continuum of <a href="Romance_languages" title="Romance languages">Romance languages</a> comprises, from West to East: in Portugal, <a href="Portuguese_language" title="Portuguese language">Portuguese</a>; in Spain, <a href="Galician_language" title="Galician language">Galician</a>, <a href="Leonese_language" title="Leonese language">Leonese</a> or <a href="Asturian_language" title="Asturian language">Asturian</a>, Castilian or <a href="Spanish_language" title="Spanish language">Spanish</a>, <a href="Aragonese_language" title="Aragonese language">Aragonese</a> and <a href="Catalan_Language" class="mw-redirect" title="Catalan Language">Catalan</a> or <a href="Valencian_language" title="Valencian language">Valencian</a>; in France, <a href="Occitan_Language" class="mw-redirect" title="Occitan Language">Occitan</a>, <a href="Franco-Proven%C3%A7al_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Franco-Provençal language">Franco-Provençal</a>, standard <a href="French_language" title="French language">French</a> and <a href="Corsican_Language" class="mw-redirect" title="Corsican Language">Corsican</a> which is closely related to Italian; in Italy, <a href="Ligurian_language" title="Ligurian language">Ligurian</a>, <a href="Piedmontese_language" title="Piedmontese language">Piedmontese</a>, <a href="Lombard_language" title="Lombard language">Lombard</a>, <a href="Emilian_dialects" class="mw-redirect" title="Emilian dialects">Emilian</a>, <a href="Romagnol_dialects" class="mw-redirect" title="Romagnol dialects">Romagnol</a>, <a href="Italian_language" title="Italian language">Italian</a> Gallo-Picene, <a href="Venetian_language" title="Venetian language">Venetian</a>, <a href="Friulian_language" title="Friulian language">Friulian</a>, <a href="Ladin_language" title="Ladin language">Ladin</a>; and in Switzerland, <a href="Lombard_language" title="Lombard language">Lombard</a> and <a href="Romansh_language" title="Romansh language">Romansh</a>. This continuum is sometimes presented as another example, but the major languages in the group (i.e. Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian) have had separate <a href="Standard_language" title="Standard language">standards</a> for longer than the languages in the Continental West Germanic group, and so are not commonly classified as <a href="Dialect" title="Dialect">dialects</a> of a common language.
</p><p>Focusing instead on the local Romance lects that pre-existed the establishment of national or regional standard languages, all evidence and principles point to <i>Romania continua</i> as having been, and to varying extents in some areas still being, what <a href="Charles_Hockett" class="mw-redirect" title="Charles Hockett">Charles Hockett</a> called an L-complex, i.e. an unbroken chain of local differentiation such that, in principle and with appropriate caveats, intelligibility (due to sharing of features) attenuates with distance. This is perhaps most evident today in Italy, where, especially in rural and small-town contexts, local Romance is still often employed at home and work, and geolinguistic distinctions are such that while native speakers from any two nearby towns can understand each other with ease, they can also spot from linguistic features that the other is from elsewhere.
</p><p>In recent centuries, the intermediate dialects between the major Romance languages have been moving toward <a href="Language_death" title="Language death">extinction</a>, as their speakers have switched to varieties closer to the more prestigious national standards. That has been most notable in France, owing to the French government's <a href="Language_policy_in_France" title="Language policy in France">refusal to recognise minority languages</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-34"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> but it has occurred to some extent in all Western Romance speaking countries. Language change has also threatened the survival of stateless languages with existing literary standards, such as Occitan.
</p><p>The Romance <a href="Languages_of_Italy" title="Languages of Italy">languages of Italy</a> are a less arguable example of a dialect continuum. For many decades since Italy's unification, the attitude of the French government towards the ethnolinguistic minorities was copied by the Italian government.<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-35"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>34<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="Eastern_Romance_continuum">Eastern Romance continuum</h4></div>
<p>The eastern Romance continuum is dominated by <a href="Romanian_language" title="Romanian language">Romanian</a>. Outside Romania and Moldova, across the other south-east European countries, various Romanian language groups are to be found: pockets of various Romanian and Aromanian subgroups survive throughout <a href="Bulgaria" title="Bulgaria">Bulgaria</a>, <a href="Serbia" title="Serbia">Serbia</a>, <a href="North_Macedonia" title="North Macedonia">North Macedonia</a>, <a href="Greece" title="Greece">Greece</a>, <a href="Albania" title="Albania">Albania</a> and <a href="Croatia" title="Croatia">Croatia</a> (mostly in <a href="Istria" title="Istria">Istria</a>).
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Slavic_languages">Slavic languages</h3></div>
<p>Conventionally, on the basis of extralinguistic features (such as writing systems or the former western frontier of the Soviet Union), the North Slavic continuum is split into East and West Slavic continua. From the perspective of linguistic features alone, only two Slavic (dialect) continua can be distinguished, namely North and South,<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-37"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>35<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-38"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-39"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>37<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> separated from each other by a band of non-Slavic languages: Romanian, Hungarian and German.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="North_Slavic_continuum">North Slavic continuum</h4></div>
<p>The North Slavic continuum covers the <a href="East_Slavic_languages" title="East Slavic languages">East Slavic</a> and <a href="West_Slavic_languages" title="West Slavic languages">West Slavic languages</a>. East Slavic includes <a href="Russian_language" title="Russian language">Russian</a>, <a href="Belarusian_language" title="Belarusian language">Belarusian</a>, <a href="Rusyn_language" title="Rusyn language">Rusyn</a> and <a href="Ukrainian_language" title="Ukrainian language">Ukrainian</a>; West Slavic languages of <a href="Czech_language" title="Czech language">Czech</a>, <a href="Polish_language" title="Polish language">Polish</a>, <a href="Slovak_language" title="Slovak language">Slovak</a>, <a href="Silesian_language" title="Silesian language">Silesian</a>, <a href="Kashubian_language" title="Kashubian language">Kashubian</a>, and <a href="Upper_Sorbian_language" title="Upper Sorbian language">Upper</a> and <a href="Lower_Sorbian_language" title="Lower Sorbian language">Lower Sorbian</a>. <a href="Eastern_Slovak_dialects" title="Eastern Slovak dialects">Eastern Slovak</a> and <a href="Pannonian_Rusyn" title="Pannonian Rusyn">Pannonian Rusyn</a> stand out as sharing features with Slovak, Polish and Rusyn, thus serving as a transition between West and East Slavic languages.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading4"><h4 id="South_Slavic_continuum">South Slavic continuum</h4></div>
<div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Further information: <a href="Pluricentric_language#Serbo-Croatian" title="Pluricentric language">Pluricentric language § Serbo-Croatian</a></div>
<p>All South Slavic languages form a dialect continuum.<sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-40"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>38<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-41"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It comprises, from West to East, <a href="Slovenia" title="Slovenia">Slovenia</a>, <a href="Croatia" title="Croatia">Croatia</a>, <a href="Bosnia_and_Herzegovina" title="Bosnia and Herzegovina">Bosnia and Herzegovina</a>, <a href="Montenegro" title="Montenegro">Montenegro</a>, <a href="Serbia" title="Serbia">Serbia</a>, <a href="North_Macedonia" title="North Macedonia">North Macedonia</a>, and <a href="Bulgaria" title="Bulgaria">Bulgaria</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-42"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>40<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-43"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>41<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Standard <a href="Slovene_language" title="Slovene language">Slovene</a>, <a href="Macedonian_language" title="Macedonian language">Macedonian</a>, and <a href="Bulgarian_language" title="Bulgarian language">Bulgarian</a> are each based on a distinct dialect, but the Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian <a href="Differences_between_Serbo-Croatian_standard_varieties" class="mw-redirect" title="Differences between Serbo-Croatian standard varieties">standard varieties</a> of the <a href="Pluricentric_language#Serbo-Croatian" title="Pluricentric language">pluricentric</a> <a href="Serbo-Croatian_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Serbo-Croatian language">Serbo-Croatian language</a> are all based on the same dialect, <a href="Shtokavian_dialect" class="mw-redirect" title="Shtokavian dialect">Shtokavian</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-44"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>42<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-45"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>43<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-46"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>44<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
Therefore, <a href="Croats" title="Croats">Croats</a>, <a href="Serbs" title="Serbs">Serbs</a>, <a href="Bosniaks" title="Bosniaks">Bosniaks</a> and <a href="Montenegrins" title="Montenegrins">Montenegrins</a> <a href="Language_secessionism#In_Serbo-Croatian" title="Language secessionism">communicate fluently</a> with each other in their respective <a href="Standard_language" title="Standard language">standardized varieties</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>45<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-48" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-48"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>46<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-49" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-49"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In <a href="Croatia" title="Croatia">Croatia</a>, native speakers of Shtokavian may struggle to understand distinct <a href="Kajkavian" title="Kajkavian">Kajkavian</a> or <a href="Chakavian" title="Chakavian">Chakavian</a> dialects, as might the speakers of the two with each other.<sup id="cite_ref-50" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-50"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>48<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-51" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-51"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Likewise in <a href="Serbia" title="Serbia">Serbia</a>, the <a href="Torlakian" class="mw-redirect" title="Torlakian">Torlakian</a> dialect differs significantly from Standard Serbian. Serbian is a Western South Slavic standard, but Torlakian is largely transitional with the Eastern South Slavic languages (Bulgarian and Macedonian). Collectively, the Torlakian dialects with Macedonian and Bulgarian share many grammatical features that set them apart from all other Slavic languages, such as the complete loss of its <a href="Grammatical_case" title="Grammatical case">grammatical case</a> systems and adoption of features more commonly found among <a href="Analytic_languages" class="mw-redirect" title="Analytic languages">analytic languages</a>.
</p><p>The barrier between <i>East South Slavic</i> and <i>West South Slavic</i> is historical and natural, caused primarily by a one-time geographical distance between speakers. The two varieties started diverging early on (<abbr title="circa">c.</abbr><span style="white-space:nowrap;"> 11th century CE</span>) and evolved separately ever since without major mutual influence, as evidenced by distinguishable <a href="Old_Bulgarian" class="mw-redirect" title="Old Bulgarian">Old Slavonic</a>, while the western dialect of common Old Slavic was still spoken across the modern Serbo-Croatian area in the 12th and early 13th centuries. An intermediate dialect linking western and eastern variations inevitably came into existence over time – <a href="Torlakian_dialect" class="mw-redirect" title="Torlakian dialect">Torlakian</a> – spoken across a wide radius on which the tripoint of <a href="Bulgaria" title="Bulgaria">Bulgaria</a>, <a href="North_Macedonia" title="North Macedonia">North Macedonia</a> and <a href="Serbia" title="Serbia">Serbia</a> is relatively pivotal.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Uralic_languages">Uralic languages</h3></div>
<p>The other major language family in Europe besides Indo-European are the <a href="Uralic_languages" title="Uralic languages">Uralic languages</a>. The <a href="Sami_languages" class="mw-redirect" title="Sami languages">Sami languages</a>, sometimes mistaken for a single language, are a dialect continuum, albeit with some disconnections like between <a href="North_Sami_language" class="mw-redirect" title="North Sami language">North</a>, <a href="Skolt_Sami_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Skolt Sami language">Skolt</a> and <a href="Inari_S%C3%A1mi_language" title="Inari Sámi language">Inari Sami</a>. The <a href="Baltic-Finnic_languages" class="mw-redirect" title="Baltic-Finnic languages">Baltic-Finnic languages</a> spoken around the <a href="Gulf_of_Finland" title="Gulf of Finland">Gulf of Finland</a> form a dialect continuum. Thus, although <a href="Finnish_language" title="Finnish language">Finnish</a> and <a href="Estonian_language" title="Estonian language">Estonian</a> are considered as separate languages, there is no definite linguistic border or isogloss that separates them. This is now more difficult to recognize because many of the intervening languages have declined or become extinct.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Goidelic_continuum">Goidelic continuum</h3></div>
<p>The <a href="Goidelic_languages" title="Goidelic languages">Goidelic languages</a> consist of <a href="Irish_language" title="Irish language">Irish</a>, <a href="Scottish_Gaelic" title="Scottish Gaelic">Scottish Gaelic</a> and <a href="Manx_language" title="Manx language">Manx</a>. Prior to the 19th and 20th centuries, the continuum existed throughout Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland.<sup id="cite_ref-52" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-52"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>50<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-53" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-53"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>51<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Many intermediate dialects have become extinct or have died out leaving major gaps between languages such as in the islands of <a href="Rathlin" class="mw-redirect" title="Rathlin">Rathlin</a>, <a href="Isle_of_Arran" title="Isle of Arran">Arran</a> or <a href="Kintyre" title="Kintyre">Kintyre</a><sup id="cite_ref-54" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-54"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>52<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and also in the <a href="Counties_of_Ireland" title="Counties of Ireland">Irish counties</a> of <a href="County_Antrim" title="County Antrim">Antrim</a>, <a href="County_Londonderry" title="County Londonderry">Londonderry</a> and <a href="County_Down" title="County Down">Down</a>.
</p><p>The current Goidelic speaking areas of Ireland are also separated by extinct dialects but remain mutually intelligible.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Middle_East">Middle East</h2></div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Arabic">Arabic</h3></div>
<p><a href="Arabic" title="Arabic">Arabic</a> is a standard case of <a href="Diglossia" title="Diglossia">diglossia</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-55" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-55"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>53<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The standard written language, <a href="Modern_Standard_Arabic" title="Modern Standard Arabic">Modern Standard Arabic</a>, is based on the <a href="Classical_Arabic" title="Classical Arabic">Classical Arabic</a> of the <a href="Qur'an" class="mw-redirect" title="Qur'an">Qur'an</a>, while the <a href="Varieties_of_Arabic" title="Varieties of Arabic">modern vernacular dialects</a> (or languages) branched from ancient Arabic dialects, from North Western <a href="Africa" title="Africa">Africa</a> through <a href="Egypt" title="Egypt">Egypt</a>, <a href="Sudan" title="Sudan">Sudan</a>, and the <a href="Fertile_Crescent" title="Fertile Crescent">Fertile Crescent</a> to the <a href="Arabian_Peninsula" title="Arabian Peninsula">Arabian Peninsula</a> and <a href="Iraq" title="Iraq">Iraq</a>. The dialects use different analogues from the Arabic language inventory and have been influenced by different substrate and superstrate languages. Adjacent dialects are mutually understandable to a large extent, but those from distant regions are more difficult to understand.<sup id="cite_ref-56" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-56"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>54<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The difference between the written standard and the vernaculars is apparent also in the written language, and children have to be taught Modern Standard Arabic in school to be able to read it.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Aramaic">Aramaic</h3></div>
<p>All <a href="Modern_Aramaic" class="mw-redirect" title="Modern Aramaic">modern Aramaic</a> languages descend from a dialect continuum that historically existed through the Aramaization of the Levant (other than the original Aramaic-speaking parts) and Mesopotamia<sup id="cite_ref-57" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-57"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>55<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and before the Islamicization of the Levant and Mesopotamia. <a href="Northeastern_Neo-Aramaic" title="Northeastern Neo-Aramaic">Northeastern Neo-Aramaic</a>, including distinct varieties spoken by both Jews and Christians, is a dialect continuum although greatly disrupted by population displacement during the twentieth century.<sup id="cite_ref-58" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-58"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>56<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-59" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-59"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>57<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-60" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-60"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>58<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Armenian">Armenian</h3></div>
<p>The <a href="Armenian_language" title="Armenian language">Armenian language</a> has two standardized forms: <a href="Western_Armenian" title="Western Armenian">Western Armenian</a> and <a href="Eastern_Armenian" title="Eastern Armenian">Eastern Armenian</a>. Before the <a href="Armenian_genocide" title="Armenian genocide">Armenian genocide</a> and other significant demographic changes that affected the <a href="Armenians" title="Armenians">Armenians</a>, several dozen <a href="Armenian_dialects" title="Armenian dialects">Armenian dialects</a> existed in the areas historically populated by them. The most notable overarching survey of the Armenian dialects is the <i>Classification des dialectes arméniens</i> (<i>Classification of Armenian dialects</i>), a 1909 book by the Armenian linguist <a href="Hrachia_Acharian" title="Hrachia Acharian">Hrachia Acharian</a>, published in Paris.<sup id="cite_ref-61" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-61"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>59<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It is Acharian's translation into French of his original work <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nayiri.com/imagedBook.jsp?id=1"><i>Hay Barbaṙagitutʿiwn</i></a> ("Armenian Dialectology") that was later published as a book in 1911 in Moscow and New Nakhichevan. The French translation lacks dialectal examples. An English translation was published in 2024.<sup id="cite_ref-62" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-62"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>60<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Acharian surveyed the Armenian dialects in what is now <a href="Turkey" title="Turkey">Turkey</a>, <a href="Armenia" title="Armenia">Armenia</a>, <a href="Georgia_(country)" title="Georgia (country)">Georgia</a>, <a href="Iran" title="Iran">Iran</a>, <a href="Azerbaijan" title="Azerbaijan">Azerbaijan</a> and other countries settled by <a href="Armenians" title="Armenians">Armenians</a>. After the <a href="Armenian_genocide" title="Armenian genocide">Armenian genocide</a>, linguists <a href="Gevorg_Jahukyan" title="Gevorg Jahukyan">Gevorg Jahukyan</a>, Jos Weitenberg, <a href="Bert_Vaux" title="Bert Vaux">Bert Vaux</a> and <a href="Hrach_Martirosyan" title="Hrach Martirosyan">Hrach Martirosyan</a> have extended the understanding of Armenian dialects.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Persian">Persian</h3></div>
<p>The varieties of the <a href="Persian_language" title="Persian language">Persian language</a>, including <a href="Tajik_language" title="Tajik language">Tajiki</a> and <a href="Dari_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Dari language">Dari</a>, form a dialect continuum. The divergence of Tajik was accelerated by the shift from the Perso-Arabic alphabet to a Cyrillic one under Soviet rule. Western dialects of Persian show greater influence from Arabic and Oghuz Turkic languages, but Dari and Tajik tend to preserve many classical features in grammar and vocabulary. Also the <a href="Tat_language_(Caucasus)" title="Tat language (Caucasus)">Tat language</a>, a dialect of Persian, is spoken in Azerbaijan.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Turkic">Turkic</h2></div>
<p><a href="Turkic_languages" title="Turkic languages">Turkic languages</a> are best described as a dialect continuum.<sup id="cite_ref-63" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-63"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>61<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Geographically this continuum starts at the <a href="Balkans" title="Balkans">Balkans</a> in the west with <a href="Balkan_Gagauz_Turkish_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Balkan Gagauz Turkish language">Balkan Turkish</a>, includes <a href="Turkish_language" title="Turkish language">Turkish</a> in <a href="Turkey" title="Turkey">Turkey</a> and <a href="Azerbaijani_language" title="Azerbaijani language">Azerbaijani language</a> in <a href="Azerbaijan" title="Azerbaijan">Azerbaijan</a>, extends into <a href="Iran" title="Iran">Iran</a> with <a href="Azerbaijani_language" title="Azerbaijani language">Azeri</a> and <a href="Turkic_Khalaj_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Turkic Khalaj language">Khalaj</a>, into <a href="Iraq" title="Iraq">Iraq</a> with <a href="Turkmen_language" title="Turkmen language">Turkmen</a>, across <a href="Central_Asia" title="Central Asia">Central Asia</a> to include <a href="Turkmenistan" title="Turkmenistan">Turkmenistan</a>, <a href="Uzbekistan" title="Uzbekistan">Uzbekistan</a>, <a href="Kazakhstan" title="Kazakhstan">Kazakhstan</a>, <a href="Kyrgyzstan" title="Kyrgyzstan">Kyrgyzstan</a>, to southern Regions of <a href="Tajikistan" title="Tajikistan">Tajikistan</a> and into <a href="Afghanistan" title="Afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>. In the south, the continuum starts in northern Afghanistan, northward to <a href="Chuvashia_Republic" class="mw-redirect" title="Chuvashia Republic">Chuvashia</a>. In the east it extends to the Republic of <a href="Tuva" title="Tuva">Tuva</a>, the <a href="Xinjiang" title="Xinjiang">Xinjiang</a> autonomous region in Western China with the <a href="Uyghur_language" title="Uyghur language">Uyghur language</a> and into <a href="Mongolia" title="Mongolia">Mongolia</a> with <a href="Khoton" class="mw-redirect" title="Khoton">Khoton</a>. The entire territory is inhabited by Turkic speaking peoples. There are three varieties of Turkic geographically outside the continuum: <a href="Chuvash_language" title="Chuvash language">Chuvash</a>, <a href="Sakha_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Sakha language">Yakut</a> and <a href="Dolgan_language" title="Dolgan language">Dolgan</a>. They have been geographically separated from the other Turkic languages for an extensive period of time, and Chuvash language stands out as the most divergent from other Turkic languages.
</p><p>There are also <a href="Gagauz_language" title="Gagauz language">Gagauz</a> speakers in <a href="Moldavia" title="Moldavia">Moldavia</a> and <a href="Urum_language" title="Urum language">Urum</a> speakers in <a href="Georgia_(country)" title="Georgia (country)">Georgia</a>.
</p><p>The Turkic continuum makes internal genetic classification of the languages problematic. <a href="Chuvash_language" title="Chuvash language">Chuvash</a>, Khalaj and <a href="Sakha_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Sakha language">Yakut</a> are generally classified as significantly distinct, but the remaining <a href="Turkic_languages" title="Turkic languages">Turkic languages</a> are quite similar, with a high degree of mutual intelligibility between not only geographically adjacent varieties but also among some varieties some distance apart. Structurally, the Turkic languages are very close to one another, and they share basic features such as <a href="Subject%E2%80%93object%E2%80%93verb" class="mw-redirect" title="Subject–object–verb">SOV</a> word order, <a href="Vowel_harmony" title="Vowel harmony">vowel harmony</a> (except the <a href="Karluk_languages" title="Karluk languages">Karluk sub-branch</a> and Khalaj)<sup id="cite_ref-64" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-64"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>62<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-65" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-65"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>63<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and <a href="Agglutination" title="Agglutination">agglutination</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-66" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-66"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>64<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Indo-Aryan_languages">Indo-Aryan languages</h2></div>
<p>Many of the <a href="Indo-Aryan_languages" title="Indo-Aryan languages">Indo-Aryan languages</a> of the <a href="Indian_subcontinent" title="Indian subcontinent">Indian subcontinent</a> form a dialect continuum. What is called "<a href="Hindi" title="Hindi">Hindi</a>" in India is frequently <a href="Standard_Hindi" class="mw-redirect" title="Standard Hindi">Standard Hindi</a>, the <a href="Sanskrit" title="Sanskrit">Sanskritized</a> register of the colloquial <a href="Hindustani_language" title="Hindustani language">Hindustani</a> spoken in the <a href="Delhi" title="Delhi">Delhi</a> area, the other register being <a href="Urdu" title="Urdu">Urdu</a>. However, the term Hindi is also used for the different dialects from <a href="Bihar" title="Bihar">Bihar</a> to <a href="Rajasthan" title="Rajasthan">Rajasthan</a> and, more widely, some of the Eastern and Northern dialects are sometimes grouped under Hindi. The Indo-Aryan <a href="Prakrit" title="Prakrit">Prakrits</a> also gave rise to languages like <a href="Gujarati_language" title="Gujarati language">Gujarati</a>, <a href="Assamese_language" title="Assamese language">Assamese</a>, <a href="Maithili_language" title="Maithili language">Maithili</a>, <a href="Bengali_language" title="Bengali language">Bengali</a>, <a href="Odia_language" title="Odia language">Odia</a>, <a href="Nepali_language" title="Nepali language">Nepali</a>, <a href="Marathi_language" title="Marathi language">Marathi</a>, <a href="Konkani_language" title="Konkani language">Konkani</a> and <a href="Punjabi_language" title="Punjabi language">Punjabi</a>.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Chinese">Chinese</h2></div>
<p>Chinese consists of hundreds of mutually unintelligible <a href="Varieties_of_Chinese" title="Varieties of Chinese">local varieties</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Norman_2003_p72_67-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Norman_2003_p72-67"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>65<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-68" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-68"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>66<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
The differences are similar to those within the <a href="Romance_languages" title="Romance languages">Romance languages</a>, which are similarly descended from a language spread by imperial expansion over <a href="Substrate_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Substrate language">substrate languages</a> 2000 years ago.<sup id="cite_ref-69" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-69"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>67<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
Unlike Europe, however, Chinese political unity was restored in the late 6th century and has persisted (with interludes of division) until the present day.
There are no equivalents of the local standard literary languages that developed in the numerous independent states of Europe.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorman19882–3_70-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorman19882–3-70"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>68<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Chinese dialectologists have divided the local varieties into a number of dialect groups, largely based on phonological developments in comparison with <a href="Middle_Chinese" title="Middle Chinese">Middle Chinese</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-71" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-71"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>69<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
Most of these groups are found in the rugged terrain of the southeast, reflecting the greater variation in this area, particularly in <a href="Fujian" title="Fujian">Fujian</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-72" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-72"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>70<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorman1988183–190_73-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorman1988183–190-73"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>71<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
Each of these groups contains numerous mutually unintelligible varieties.<sup id="cite_ref-Norman_2003_p72_67-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Norman_2003_p72-67"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>65<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
Moreover, in many cases the transitions between groups are smooth, as a result of centuries of interaction and multilingualism.<sup id="cite_ref-74" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-74"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>72<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The boundaries between the northern <a href="Mandarin_Chinese" title="Mandarin Chinese">Mandarin</a> area and the central groups, <a href="Wu_Chinese" title="Wu Chinese">Wu</a>, <a href="Gan_Chinese" title="Gan Chinese">Gan</a> and <a href="Xiang_Chinese" title="Xiang Chinese">Xiang</a>, are particularly weak, due to the steady flow of northern features into these areas.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorman1988190,_206–207_75-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorman1988190,_206–207-75"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>73<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-76" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-76"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>74<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
Transitional varieties between the Wu, Gan and Mandarin groups have been variously classified, with some scholars assigning them to a separate <a href="Huizhou_Chinese" title="Huizhou Chinese">Hui</a> group.<sup id="cite_ref-77" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-77"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>75<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorman1988206_78-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorman1988206-78"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>76<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
The boundaries between Gan, <a href="Hakka_Chinese" title="Hakka Chinese">Hakka</a> and <a href="Min_Chinese" title="Min Chinese">Min</a> are similarly indistinct.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorman1988241_79-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorman1988241-79"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>77<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTENorman200380_80-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTENorman200380-80"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>78<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
<a href="Pinghua" title="Pinghua">Pinghua</a> and <a href="Yue_Chinese" title="Yue Chinese">Yue</a> form a dialect continuum (excluding urban enclaves of <a href="Cantonese" title="Cantonese">Cantonese</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-81" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-81"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>79<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
There are sharper boundaries resulting from more recent expansion between Hakka and Yue, and between <a href="Southwestern_Mandarin" title="Southwestern Mandarin">Southwestern Mandarin</a> and Yue, but even here there has been considerable convergence in contact areas.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHalliday196811–12_82-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHalliday196811–12-82"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>80<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Cree_and_Ojibwa">Cree and Ojibwa</h2></div>
<p><a href="Cree_language" title="Cree language">Cree</a> is a group of closely related <a href="Algonquian_languages" title="Algonquian languages">Algonquian languages</a> that are distributed from <a href="Alberta" title="Alberta">Alberta</a> to <a href="Labrador" title="Labrador">Labrador</a> in <a href="Canada" title="Canada">Canada</a>. They form the Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi dialect continuum, with around 117,410 speakers. The languages can be roughly classified into nine groups, from west to east:
</p>
<ul><li><a href="Plains_Cree_language" title="Plains Cree language">Plains Cree</a> (y-dialect)</li>
<li><a href="Woods_Cree" title="Woods Cree">Woods Cree</a> or Woods/Rocky Cree (ð-dialect)</li>
<li><a href="Swampy_Cree" title="Swampy Cree">Swampy Cree</a> (n-dialect)
<ul><li>Eastern Swampy Cree</li>
<li>Western Swampy Cree</li></ul></li>
<li><a href="Moose_Cree" title="Moose Cree">Moose Cree</a> (l-dialect)</li>
<li><a href="East_Cree" title="East Cree">East Cree</a> or James Bay Cree (y-dialect)
<ul><li>Northern East Cree</li>
<li>Southern East Cree</li></ul></li>
<li><a href="Atikamekw_language" title="Atikamekw language">Atikamekw</a> (r-dialect)</li>
<li>Western Montagnais (l-dialect)</li>
<li><a href="Innu_language" title="Innu language">Innu-aimun</a> or Eastern Montagnais (n-dialect)</li>
<li><a href="Naskapi_language" title="Naskapi language">Naskapi</a> (y-dialect)</li></ul>
<p>Various Cree languages are used as languages of instruction and taught as subjects: Plains Cree, Eastern Cree, Montagnais, etc. Mutual intelligibility between some dialects can be low. There is no accepted standard dialect.<sup id="cite_ref-83" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-83"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>81<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-84" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-84"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>82<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-85" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-85"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>83<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p><a href="Ojibwe_language" title="Ojibwe language">Ojibwa</a> (Chippewa) is a group of closely related <a href="Algonquian_languages" title="Algonquian languages">Algonquian languages</a> in <a href="Canada" title="Canada">Canada</a>, which is distributed from <a href="British_Columbia" title="British Columbia">British Columbia</a> to <a href="Quebec" title="Quebec">Quebec</a>, and the <a href="United_States" title="United States">United States</a>, distributed from <a href="Montana" title="Montana">Montana</a> to <a href="Michigan" title="Michigan">Michigan</a>, with <a href="Diaspora" title="Diaspora">diaspora</a> communities in <a href="Kansas" title="Kansas">Kansas</a> and <a href="Oklahoma" title="Oklahoma">Oklahoma</a>. With Cree, the <a href="Ojibwe_language" title="Ojibwe language">Ojibwe</a> dialect continuum forms its own continuum, but the <a href="Oji-Cree_language" title="Oji-Cree language">Oji-Cree language</a> of this continuum joins the Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi dialect continuum through <a href="Swampy_Cree_language" title="Swampy Cree language">Swampy Cree</a>. The Ojibwe continuum has 70,606 speakers. Roughly from northwest to southeast, it has these dialects:
</p>
<ul><li>Ojibwa-Ottawa
<ul><li><a href="Algonquin_language" title="Algonquin language">Algonquin</a></li>
<li><a href="Oji-Cree_language" title="Oji-Cree language">Oji-Cree (Northern Ojibwa)</a> or Severn</li>
<li>Ojibwa
<ul><li><a href="Western_Ojibwa_language" title="Western Ojibwa language">Western Ojibwa</a> or Saulteaux</li>
<li><a href="Chippewa_language" title="Chippewa language">Chippewa (Southwestern Ojibwa)</a></li>
<li><a href="Northwestern_Ojibwa" title="Northwestern Ojibwa">Northwestern Ojibwa</a></li>
<li><a href="Central_Ojibwa_language" title="Central Ojibwa language">Central Ojibwa</a> or Nipissing</li>
<li><a href="Eastern_Ojibwa_language" title="Eastern Ojibwa language">Eastern Ojibwa</a> or Mississauga</li></ul></li>
<li><a href="Ottawa_dialect" title="Ottawa dialect">Ottawa (Southeastern Ojibwa)</a></li></ul></li>
<li><a href="Potawatomi_language" title="Potawatomi language">Potawatomi</a></li></ul>
<p>Unlike the Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi dialect continuum, with distinct n/y/l/r/ð dialect characteristics and noticeable west–east k/č(ch) axis, the Ojibwe continuum is marked with <a href="Syncope_(phonetics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Syncope (phonetics)">vowel syncope</a> along the west–east axis and ∅/n along the north–south axis.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div>
<ul><li><a href="A_language_is_a_dialect_with_an_army_and_navy" title="A language is a dialect with an army and navy">A language is a dialect with an army and navy</a> (an <a href="Aphorism" title="Aphorism">aphorism</a> spread among linguists)</li>
<li><a href="Dialect" title="Dialect">Dialect</a>, including the classification units "dialect cluster", "language cluster" and "dialect group"</li>
<li><a href="Dialect_levelling" title="Dialect levelling">Dialect levelling</a></li>
<li><a href="Dialectometry" title="Dialectometry">Dialectometry</a></li>
<li><a href="Diasystem" title="Diasystem">Diasystem</a></li>
<li><a href="Diglossia" title="Diglossia">Diglossia</a></li>
<li><a href="Koine_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Koine language">Koine language</a></li>
<li><a href="Language_secessionism" title="Language secessionism">Language secessionism</a></li>
<li><a href="Linkage_(linguistics)" title="Linkage (linguistics)">Linkage (linguistics)</a></li>
<li><a href="ISO_639_macrolanguage" title="ISO 639 macrolanguage">Macrolanguage</a></li>
<li><a href="Post-creole_speech_continuum" class="mw-redirect" title="Post-creole speech continuum">Post-creole speech continuum</a></li>
<li><a href="Ring_species" title="Ring species">Ring species</a>, an analogous concept in ecology</li></ul>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Notes">Notes</h2></div>
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</style><div class="reflist reflist-lower-alpha">
<div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references">
<li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-23">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="Carpathian_Ruthenia" class="mw-redirect" title="Carpathian Ruthenia">Carpathian Ruthenia</a> is mistakenly excluded from North Slavic on the map, even though <a href="Rusyn_language" title="Rusyn language">Rusyn</a>, an East Slavic dialect group on the transition to West Slavic, is spoken there.</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-30">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">In this context, "A group of related dialects of <a href="Low_German" title="Low German">Low German</a>, spoken in northern Germany and parts of the Netherlands, formerly also in Denmark." (Definition from <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Low_Saxon" class="extiw external" title="wikt:Low Saxon">Wiktionary</a>)</span>
</li>
</ol></div></div>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
<div class="reflist">
<div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references">
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/* start https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("./mw/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("./mw/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("./mw/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("./mw/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}
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</li>
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</li>
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</li>
<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199893–94-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199893–94_8-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFChambersTrudgill1998">Chambers & Trudgill (1998)</a>, pp. 93–94.</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199894–95-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChambersTrudgill199894–95_9-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFChambersTrudgill1998">Chambers & Trudgill (1998)</a>, pp. 94–95.</span>
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