different between cant vs dialect

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?nt, IPA^(key): /kænt/
• Rhymes: -ænt
• Homophone: can't (US), Homophone: Kant (in anglicized pronunciation)

Etymology 1

From Latin cant? probably via Old Northern French canter (“sing, tell”). Doublet of chant.

Noun

cant (usually uncountable, plural cants)

1. (countable) An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup.

   Synonyms: argot, jargon, slang

   • 1836, Three discourses preached before the Congregational Society in Watertown, page 65

2. (countable, uncountable) A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.

   Synonyms: argot, jargon, slang

3. A language spoken by some Irish Travellers; Shelta.
4. (uncountable, derogatory) Empty, hypocritical talk.
   • 1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, ch 46:

     ... he knew very well that if they thought him clever they were being taken in, but it pleased him to have been able to take them in, and he tried to do so still further; he was therefore a good deal on the look-out for cants that he could catch and apply in season, and might have done himself some mischief thus if he had not been ready to throw over any cant as soon as he had come across another more nearly to his fancy ...

5. (uncountable) Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
6. (countable, heraldry) A blazon of a coat of arms that makes a pun upon the name (or, less often, some attribute or function) of the bearer, canting arms.
7. (obsolete) A call for bidders at a public fair; an auction.

Related terms

Translations

Verb

cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted)

1. (intransitive) To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.
2. (intransitive) To speak in set phrases.
3. (intransitive) To preach in a singsong fashion, especially in a false or empty manner.
4. (intransitive, heraldry) Of a blazon, to make a pun that references the bearer of a coat of arms.
5. (obsolete) To sell by auction, or bid at an auction.

See also

• jargon
• sociolect

Etymology 2

From Middle English cant (“edge, brink”), from Middle Dutch cant (“point, side, edge”) (Modern Dutch kant (“side, edge”)), ultimately of Celtic or Latin origin. Related to Medieval Latin cantus (“corner, side”), from Latin canthus.

Noun

cant (plural cants)

1. (obsolete) Side, edge, corner, niche.
2. Slope, the angle at which something is set.
3. A corner (of a building).

   Synonym: corner

4. An outer or external angle.
5. An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a tilt.

   Synonyms: bevel, slope, tilt

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

6. A movement or throw that overturns something.
   • 1830, The Edinburgh Encyclopedia, volume 3, page 621

     It is not only of great service in keeping the boat in her due position on the sea, but also in creating a tendency immediately to recover from any sudden cant, or lurch, from a heavy wave; and it is besides beneficial in diminishing the violence of beating against the sides of the vessel which she may go to relieve.

7. A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so given.

8. (coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

9. A segment of the rim of a wooden cogwheel.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

10. (nautical) A piece of wood laid upon the deck of a vessel to support the bulkheads.

Derived terms

• cantrail

Related terms

• cantilever

Translations

Verb

cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted)

1. (transitive) To set (something) at an angle.

   to cant a cask; to cant a ship

2. (transitive) To give a sudden turn or new direction to.

   to cant round a stick of timber; to cant a football

3. (transitive) To bevel an edge or corner.
4. (transitive) To overturn so that the contents are emptied.

Translations

Etymology 3

Unknown, but compare Provençal cantel (“corner, piece”) or Old Northern French cantel (“piece broken off”). The verb is attested from the 15th century, and the noun from the 16th.

Verb

cant (third-person singular simple present cants, present participle canting, simple past and past participle canted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To divide or parcel out.

Noun

cant (plural cants)

1. (regional, forestry) A parcel, a division.

Etymology 4

From Middle English cant, kaunt, presumably from Middle Low German *kant. Compare Dutch kant (“neat, clever”). Attested from the 13th or 14th century.

Alternative forms

• kant

Adjective

cant (not comparable)

1. (Britain, dialect) Lively, lusty.

References

Further reading

• Cant (language) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• NCTA, T-Can

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan cant, from Latin cantus.

Noun

cant m (plural cants)

1. song

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?kant/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?kan/

Synonyms

• cançó

Related terms

• cantar

Italian

Noun

cant m (invariable)

1. Apocopic form of canto

Middle English

Etymology

Possibly from Middle Low German *kant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kant/

Adjective

cant

1. (Scotland, Northern England) bold, lively, cant
   • c. 1340, Cursor Mundi, Cotton Vespasian A iii, lines 8943-46:

     Iuus þat war sa cant and kene, / Quen þai had þis meracles sene, / þai drou it þen and mad a brig / Ouer a litel burn to lig

     Jews who were so bold and ready, when they had seen this miracle, pulled it out and made a bridge over a little stream to lie

Descendants

• English: cant (dialectal)
• Scots: cant

Romanian

Etymology

From German Kante.

Noun

cant n (plural canturi)

1. edge

Declension

Scots

Alternative forms

• kant

Etymology

From Middle English cant (“bold, lively”)

Adjective

cant

1. (Middle Scots) lively
   • 1513, Gavin Douglas (translator), Virgil (author), Aeneid:

     The cadgyar callis furth his capill with crakkis wail cant

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kant/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Brythonic *kant, from Proto-Celtic *kantom, from Proto-Indo-European *?m?tóm.

Numeral

cant (ordinal canfed)

1. one hundred

Usage notes

• Preceding a noun, cant takes the form can.
• Cardinals following cant employ a (“and”) as a connecting word, which stands in contrast to ordinals after canfed, which use wedi'r (“past the, after the”), e.g. cant ac un (“one hundred and one”) but cyntaf wedi'r cant (“hundred-and-first”).

Derived terms

• hanner cant (“fifty”)
• cant a hanner (“one hundred and fifty”)
• dau gant (“two hundred”)
• tri chant (“three hundred”)
• pum cant (“five hundred”)

Noun

cant m (plural cannoedd)

1. hundred
2. century

Etymology 2

Middle Welsh, from Proto-Celtic *kantos (“corner, rim”). Related to Breton kant (“circle”), Old Irish cétad (“round seat”).

Noun

cant m (plural cantau)

1. hoop
2. rim

Mutation

References

• Definition from the BBC
• Hoops, Johannes (1973): Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Volume 16, p. 445

English

Etymology

From Middle French dialecte, from Latin dialectos, dialectus, from Ancient Greek ????????? (diálektos, “conversation, the language of a country or a place or a nation, the local idiom which derives from a dominant language”), from ?????????? (dialégomai, “I participate in a dialogue”), from ??? (diá, “inter, through”) + ???? (lég?, “I speak”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?da?.??l?kt/

Noun

dialect (plural dialects)

1. (linguistics) A variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular area, community, or social group, differing from other varieties of the same language in relatively minor ways as regards grammar, phonology, and lexicon.

   Hyponyms: sociolect, ethnolect, regiolect, geolect
2. (derogatory) Language that is perceived as substandard or wrong.
3. (colloquial) A language existing only in an oral or non-standardized form, especially a language spoken in a developing country or an isolated region.

   Synonym: vernacular

4. (colloquial) A lect (often a regional or minority language) as part of a group or family of languages, especially if they are viewed as a single language, or if contrasted with a standardized idiom that is considered the 'true' form of the language (for example, Cantonese as contrasted with Mandarin Chinese, or Bavarian as contrasted with Standard German).

   Synonyms: vernacular, (often derogatory) patois

5. (computing, programming) A variant of a non-standardized programming language.

6. (ornithology) A variant form of the vocalizations of a bird species restricted to a certain area or population.

Usage notes

• In some linguistic traditions, the term "dialect" is restricted to nonstandard lects. In scholarly English usage, it refers to both standardized and vernacular forms of language.
• The difference between a language and a dialect is not always clear, and often has more to do with political boundaries than with linguistic differences. It is generally considered that people who speak different dialects of the same language can understand each other, while people who speak different languages cannot, however, in some cases, people who speak different dialects of the same language are mutually unintelligible. Compare species in the biological sense.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Meronyms

• idiolect

See also

• dialogue

References

Further reading

• "dialect" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 105.
• Crystal, David (2008) , “dialect”, in A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 6 edition, Blackwell Publishing, ?ISBN
• Fodde Melis, Luisanna; (2002) Race, Ethnicity and Dialects: Language Policy and Ethnic Minorities in the United States, FrancoAngeli, ?ISBN

Anagrams

• citadel, dactile, deltaic, edictal, lactide

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle French dialecte, from Latin dialectos, dialectus, from Ancient Greek ????????? (diálektos, “conversation, the language of a country or a place or a nation, the local idiom which derives from a dominant language”), from ?????????? (dialégomai, “I participate in a dialogue”), from ??? (diá, “inter, through”) + ???? (lég?, “I speak”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?dija??l?kt/
• Hyphenation: di?a?lect
• Rhymes: -?kt

Noun

dialect n (plural dialecten, diminutive dialectje n)

1. (linguistics) dialect (language variety)
2. non-standard dialect; vernacular

   Synonyms: streektaal, mondaard

Derived terms

• dialectgroep

Descendants

• Afrikaans: dialek
• ? Indonesian: dialek

Anagrams

• citadel

Romanian

Etymology

From French dialecte.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.a?lekt/

Noun

dialect n (plural dialecte)

1. (linguistics) language socially subordinate to a regional or national standard language, often historically cognate to the standard, but not a variety of it or in any other sense derived from it
2. (colloquial) dialect

Declension

Derived terms

• subdialect

See also

• idiom, grai, limbaj, limb?