From the above outlines it may be gathered that dialects are a most important factor in human speech. It is difficult, in fact, to draw a sharp line of demarcation between language and dialect French, Italian and Spanish were Latin dialects; the Scandinavian languages, as well as Dutch and Flemish•began their careers as Teutonic dialects;- Portuguese and Spanish were cognate dialects which might have become one language if the two nations had not been separated politically. As regards the English literary buguage, it would be more correct to call that a dialect than some of the eprovinciap variations, for it is constantly changing, both in spelling and pronunciation, whereas the i •dialects* in remote places preserve their forms with but little divergence from those of their Saxon or Celtic ancestors. One who has traveled much in the British Isles or the United States can quickly distinguish a speaker's county or state. It may be said that there are but two distinct English dialects, the modern English and the Scottish; on the other hand, few countries, if any, have more variations from the oonunon literary language than the English-speaking nations. The Scottish dia lect exists in its purity only in the earlier poets, historians and other writers. In Britain every county has its peculiarities, which are some times striking and difficult to be understood, es pecially in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Devon shire. The French-Canadian dialect is vivid and picturesque. There are several distinct dia. lects in the United States, as is shown by the dialect literature of the East, the West and the South, and dialect of the slums of New York Much useful research work has been done by the American Dialect Society. Its valuable
publication, Dialect Notes, furnishes interesting information on this subject, and The Ithaca Dialect, in which a local New York State dia» lest has been investigated by 0. F. Emerson, shows that the differentiations of language in distinct sections will some day furnish abun dant material for the student of dialect. British scholars have devoted much attention to the subject. Modern provincial English has been carefully studied, its origin traced and locality recorded in the papers of the English Dialect Society (187.3-96). In 1898 the first volume of Wright's great (Dialect Dictionary' appeared (completed 1905). Consult Axon, W. E. A., (English Dialects in the 18th Century) (London 1883) ; Bonaparte, Prince Louis Lucien, On the Dialect of Eleven Southern and South Western Counties, with a new Classification of the English Dialects) (London 1877) ; also his works on the Basque, French and Italian Dialects; Conway, (Italic Dialects) (Oxford 1900) ; Ellis, Dr. A. J., 'English Dialects — Their Homes and Sounds) (London 1890) ; and
Phonology of English Dialects' (London 1889) ; Grober, 'Grundriss der roman ischen Philologie) (Strassburg 1906) ; Halde man, (Pennsylvania Dutch) (1872) • Monaci,