In linguistics, the term dialect usually refers to a variety of a language in a region whose inhabitants' personal use of a language are similar. But in the Philippines and countries like China or France, it seems to have a political connotation; an unimportant tongue lacking official status, a tongue that is not promoted in the mass media, government, or schools. And sadly, in many cases, a dialect is supposedly not suitable for writing.

As stated, a dialect is a regional variant of a language. A language can have several dialects. Each dialect is similar, yet have peculiarities with vocabulary, grammatical features, and pronunciation. When people who speak two different dialects converse, they are usually able to understand each other. If not, then their dialects are most likely languages.