isolect
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Coined by Alfred Hudson in his published work on the languages of Borneo: iso- + -lect.
Noun
[edit]isolect (plural isolects)
- (linguistics) A language or dialect; coined as a neutral term between ‘language’ and ‘dialect.’ [From 1967.]
- 1967, Alfred B. Hudson, The Barito Isolects of Borneo: a Classification Based on Comparative Reconstruction and Lexicostatistics, page 53:
- Dohoi is distinctive among all the Barito isolects […] .
- 2003, Ralph W. Fasold, The Sociolinguistics Of Language, page 200:
- At the same time, the ordering of isolects that is finally chosen must give the right results for (virtually) all the environments.
- 2008, Keith Brown, Sarah Ogilvie, Malay, entry in Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World, page 677,
- While Middle Malay, Minangkabau, and Kerinci have inland and west coast variants as their origin, Malay itself developed from isolects spoken on the east coast.