Write a note on Accent and Dialect.Language and linguistics

Accent refers to the way in which people speak a language
in terms of the way they pronounce different words and phrase. People with different
regional, cultural and ethnic background generally have different way of speaking, which
affects their accent even for a common language spoken by them. For example the accent
of English spoken in Australia is quite different from that in USA or UK. As a matter of
fact accent may change from place to place within a country also. The famous play
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, is very much about such variation
in accents that may exist between different localities within a city
also.

Accent also refers to the emphasis the same person
may place on different words and syllables while speaking. This changes the stress being
put on different words in a sentence, and also alter the general feeling associated with
what is being said. Like the same sentence may convey appreciation or a taunt depending
on how it is spoken.

Dialect refers to basic variation in
the a common language, which involves basic change in word, phrases, and their meanings,
rather than just the way these are pronounced. Dialects develop because people who speak
the language in different regions introduce innovations and errors in the language which
over a period become part of common language spoken in a community. Dialects also
develop because of evolution of language over time. Thus the language spoken in times of
Shakespeare, which is the language used in his works, is very different from the English
spoken today.

Dialects involve differences in pronunciation
as well as vocabulary. The variation between two dialects may be minor, so that a person
knowing one dialect is able to understand the other dialect fairly well. But dialect of
same language can be quite different also, making it very difficult for person with
knowledge of one dialect only to understand the other dialect.