Linguist Forum

General Linguistics => Linguist's Lounge => Topic started by: freknu on February 01, 2014, 09:44:17 AM

Title: Isogloss
Post by: freknu on February 01, 2014, 09:44:17 AM

Does the term "isogloss" refer to the feature, dialect, region, or the boundary? Can it be used for all, or are there distinct terms for each?

For being a relatively simple concept, the terminology turns out to be quite the confusing mess!

:(

Title: Re: Isogloss
Post by: Daniel on February 01, 2014, 09:47:40 AM

It's the line as far as I know.
It can be used more abstractly for the feature or contrast but I think it still means line in general.

Title: Re: Isogloss
Post by: ibarrere on February 01, 2014, 10:21:32 AM

I've only heard it as the line as well, but I suppose you could use it to describe a feature.