eye dialect

noun

Nonstandard spellings which, although they indicate a standard pronunciation, are deliberately substituted in place of the standard spellings, often to indicate that a speaker's regular use of language is nonstandard or dialectal.

“For quotations using this term, see Citations:eye dialect.”

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Meanings

nouneye dialect (countable and uncountable, plural eye dialects)

plural eye dialects

  1. uncountableNonstandard spellings which, although they indicate a standard pronunciation, are deliberately substituted in place of the standard spellings, often to indicate that a speaker's regular use of language is nonstandard or dialectal.

    For quotations using this term, see Citations:eye dialect.

  2. countableA set of such nonstandard spellings, collectively used to reflect a certain form of speech.

Origin

From eye + dialect, by analogy with eye rhyme. First used by George Philip Krapp in The English Language in America (1925) in reference to written dialogue that uses nonstandard spelling but does not indicate an unusual pronunciation.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 視覺方言 /视觉方言
  • 視覺方言 /视觉方言 (shìjué fāngyán)deliberate nonstandard spellings
Finnish näköismurre, puhekieli
  • näköismurredeliberate nonstandard spellings
  • puhekielideliberate nonstandard spellings
Polish zapis fonetyczny
  • zapis fonetycznydeliberate nonstandard spellings
Portuguese dialeto visual
  • dialeto visualdeliberate nonstandard spellings
Russian зри́тельный диале́кт, падо́нки
  • зри́тельный диале́кт (zrítelʹnyj dialékt)deliberate nonstandard spellings
  • падо́нки (padónki)deliberate nonstandard spellings
  • олба́нский (olbánskij)deliberate nonstandard spellings
Spanish dialecto visual/ocular, ortografía/grafía del lenguaje hablado
  • dialecto visual/oculardeliberate nonstandard spellings
  • ortografía/grafía del lenguaje habladodeliberate nonstandard spellings
  • ortografía/grafía dialectaldeliberate nonstandard spellings
Swedish talspråk
  • talspråkdeliberate nonstandard spellings
Cite this entry
APA

eye dialect. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eye%20dialect

MLA

“eye dialect.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eye%20dialect. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “eye dialect,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eye%20dialect.

Source: eye dialect on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.