Dictionary

chronolect en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈkɹɒnəʊlɛkt/

Etymology

From chrono- (“time”) + -lect (“[language] variety”).

Meanings

1. A specific variety of a language at a given time in its history of development.
   • Taking lect in the sense of ‘variety’ (and not ‘social variety’), I have coined spatiolect ‘spatial variety’, chronolect ‘chronological variety’, communolect ‘variety of a community (however defined)’, ecolect ‘variety of an economic class’, ethnolect ‘variety of an ethnic group’, religiolect ‘variety of a religious group’, sexlect ‘variety of one of the sexes or of people with a certain sexual orientation’, urbolect ‘urban variety’, and rurolect ‘rural variety’. 1981, Leuvense Bijdragen, volume LXX, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, page 52:
   • Koine and Byzantine are chronolects of Greek.

Forms

Coordinates

geolect · regiolect · topolect · dialect

Deriveds

chronolectal

Hypernyms

lect · isolect · variety