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n. The existence, within a society or literary description of a society, of many varieties of a single language, such as regional dialects and varieties associated with class and gender, that are acted upon by social forces that compete to assimilate the varieties to a standard or to maintain or increase differentiation among them. [HETERO- + Greek glōssa, tongue, language; (translation of Russian raznorečie : raznyĭ, different, various + reč', speech + -ie, abstract n. suff).] |
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