A dialect?

So is Standard English also a dialect, then?




(English is "A language so widely distributed naturally has many varieties. These are known

as dialects.1 That word doesn’t apply just to rural or uneducated forms of speech;

the way we use it here, everyone speaks a dialect. And naturally, this book doesn’t

try to describe all the different dialects of English there are. It concentrates on one

central dialect that is particularly important: the one that we callStandard English.


http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/48374/excerpt/9780521848374_excerpt.pdf

"Dialect" is a relative definition, i.e. it requires a reference point to make sense. Hence, in a given discussion one defines a "standard" which all other dialects are measured against. Of course, the decision of which one is to be the standard is completely arbitrary and doesn't necessarily mean that one version is better than the others. Even if you don't technically define a standard, for example, if you are comparing Scottish English with Australian English, you will imply your standard by the language you use as vessel to expound your findings.

They are using the word "dialect" in a general sense where it might be technically more proper to use "variety", since the strict sense of "dialect" refers to a language variety spoken natively in a given place (as opposed to, say, a sociolect), and standard varieties of languages generally are not actually linked to a particular location in practice.

<"Dialect" is a relative definition, i.e. it requires a reference point to make sense. Hence, in a given discussion one defines a "standard" which all other dialects are measured against.>

Did the word "dialects" exist prior to the word "standard"?

<(as opposed to, say, a sociolect), >

Isn't a sociolect a type of dialect?

>><(as opposed to, say, a sociolect), >

Isn't a sociolect a type of dialect?<<

Only when "dialect" is used so as to mean "variety" in general, which is a commonplace usage of the word but not its strict sense.

I'm not sure where Travis' limited definition comes from, but this is the wider meaning:

A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists: Cockney is a dialect of English.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/dialect

Note it says also say "social" there.