PROVINCIALISM. The difference between the Languages of a family and the dialects of a language is only a difference of degree. For example, the Sanscrit, Persian, Teutonic, Greek and Latin, Slavonic, and Celtic, are languages of the Indo-Teutonic family [Lagnenuel; and the Doric, Ionic, and iEolio are dialects of the Greek language. Although the dialects of a language may present considerable differ ences both in the roots and forms of their words, the differences are leas considerable than those which obtain between languages of the same family. Thus a historian tracing the origin of the Romance languages might doubt whether he ought to consider theta as altered dialects of the Latin language, or as cognate languages of the same family. If the Italian, Spanish, and French languages were considered as modern Latin dialects, their various dialects (such as the Sicilian, Venetian, Milanese, Walloon, Valent km, &c.) would be regarded as mere varieties, analogous to the varieties of the Doric dialect as spoken by the different states of the Doric race. (MUller's Dorian; app. v.) Every language which is spoken by a largo population over a wide extent of country, contains several dialects. The number and variety of these is in some cases very great ; and considering the importance of this fact as bearing on the origin and history of Languages, it has not been sufficiently observed by philologists.
The cause of a want of attention to the multiplicity of dialects in a language is to be found in the ascendeney which one dialect of a lan guage always acquires over the others, and the obscurity and neglect to which the latter are consequently consigned. Whenever a country reaches a sufficient height of civilisation to admire and produce literary works, some one of the various dialects of its language Is selected by the poets and other native writers, and is cultivated by them. In general, this choice is determined not by any quality of the dialect itself, such as its superior harmony or energy, but by some external circumstance, such as its prevalence near the birth-placo or home of the writer, or near the king's court and seat of the government. When a dialect, by any of the means above described, has been distinguished from and raised above the others, it is adopted for all the native literary compositions, both in poetry and in prose. Hence it is still further cultivated, and is moreover thereby rendered more susceptible of ulterior cultivation and refinement. It becomes the general language of the government, of education, of literature, and of polished society ; new words are introduced into it from other languages, ancient or modern ; and it is learned by foreigners.
The rise and progress of one dialect, according to the general de scription just given, may be observed to have taken place in every civilised country. In Greece, on account of the multiplicity of inde pendent states into which the nation was divided, each dialect of the language received a separate cultivation. The early historians and philosophers wrote in the Ionic dialect, and lyric poetry was composed in the Doric and 2Eolic dialects. But after the Persian war, and the
great predominance of the Athenians, both in political power and in literature, the Attic dialect obtained the ascendant in Greece and became the common literary language. (Muller' History of Greek Literature,' e. 20,g 1, 2.) In like manner, the Tuscan dialect, chiefly on account of the pre.cminence of the Tuscan writers, became the literary language of Italy, and threw into the shade the Sicilian dialect, In which the first essays of Italian poetry were made. But notwith standing the predominance of the literary Tuscan in Italy, both as the literary language and as a means of communication between inhabitants of different parte of Italy, yet every Italian city or territory has its own dialect, which is habitually spoken, not only by the lower and middle classes, but also by the upper classes when persons from other parts of Italy or strangers are not present. In France, the dialect of the Laurie d'oil, spoken in and about the scat of govennnent, has not only thrown into the shade the other dialects of that Language, spoken In the northern portion of the kingdom, and reduced them to the con. dition of mere patois, but it has also superseded the largos d'oc, the language of the south, which had been raised to considerable literary importance by the poems of the Troubadours. The Castilian dialect has obtained a 'similar ascendency In Spain through the influence of the Castilian writers ; and the high German of Saxony has become the literary language of Germany mainly through the influence of Luther's translation of the Bible ; although the Suabian dialect received literary cultivation in the lays of the 5linnesingers before any other of the German dialects. The classical English is mainly formed upon the dialect spoken in Middlesex, and the counties In the neighbourhood of London. he forms differ materially from these of the dialects spokes in the more distant counties, as Devonshire, t3omersetehire, Cheshire, Lanceshire, and Yorkshire ; and still more from those of the dialect of the English which is spoken In the lowlands of Scotland, and In tho border counties of England. The latter dialect has received consider able literary cultivation not only from early writers, such as Buchanan, Barbour, and others, but also from Burns, Walter Scott, and their imitators, who have used it with great skill and success for ballad poetry and tales of fiction ; nor have the other dialects been altogether neglected, as several works, particularly poetry, have been premiumsd in them, among which we may mention Mien Blamire and It. Anderson in that of the Borders ; for the south of England the very superior works of Mr. Barnes, ' Poems of Rural Life, in the Dorset I)ialect, with a Dissertation and Glossary,'12u3o, 1847, and' Hwomely Rhymes,' 12rno, 3859 ; and the poems of Edward Capern, the Bideford postman, for the west.