Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Dialect

Dialect , noun

[French dialecte, Latin dialectus, from Greek dia`lektos, from diale`gomai to converse, discourse. See Dialogue.]

1.
Means or mode of expressing thoughts; language; tongue; form of speech.
This book is writ in such a dialect As may the minds of listless men affect. Bunyan. The universal dialect of the world. — South
2.
The form of speech of a limited region or people, as distinguished from ether forms nearly related to it; a variety or subdivision of a language; speech characterized by local peculiarities or specific circumstances; as, the Ionic and Attic were dialects of Greece; the Yorkshire dialect; the dialect of the learned.
In the midst of this Babel of dialects there suddenly appeared a standard English language. — Earle
[Charles V.] could address his subjects from every quarter in their native dialect. — Prescott