regionalism
/ˈriːdʒənəlɪzəm
/noun
1 [mass noun] The theory or practice of regional rather than central systems of administration or economic, cultural, or political affiliation: a strong expression of regionalism...
- In contrast to many other Latin American nations, Chile has not experienced the emergence of strong regionalism or conflicting regional cultural identities.
- The country is facing all the great issues of economic change, regionalism, and cultural and geographic diversity, while Americanization proceeds apace.
- A high level of religious practice often underlined regionalism and even nationalism.
2A linguistic feature peculiar to a particular region and not part of the standard language of a country: evening out any highly marked regionalisms in their speech...
- The publication of French dictionaries and lexicons by Enlightenment scholars further eroded regionalisms.
- After recounting the history of some of the Victorian and in particular Queenscliff regionalisms he is researching for the Australian National Dictionary, Bruce Moore explains how dictionary-makers keep abreast of usage.
- In Britain, however, the most local dialects were associated with the groups at the lower end of the social hierarchy, while those at the top spoke RP, which showed no trace of regionalisms.
Derivatives
regionalist
- Political allegiances within the remainder of Algerian society are scattered among small groups of democrats, regionalists, and independents.
- The Yorkshireman, an outspoken Labour MP who represents Grimsby, had his passionately regionalist speech met with applause from those who attended the convention, the first of its kind in Yorkshire.
- The old leftist has become a dedicated regionalist.