An
isogloss, also called a
heterogloss (see Etymology below), is the geographic boundary of a certain
linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a
vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some syntactic feature. Major
dialects are typically demarcated by
groups of isoglosses such as the
Benrath line distinguishes
High German from the other
West Germanic languages; and the
La Spezia–Rimini Line divides the Northern Italian dialects from Central Italian dialects. However, an
individual isogloss may or may not have any coincidence with a
language border. For example, the front-rounding of /y/ cuts across France and Germany, while the /y/ is absent from Italian and Spanish words that are cognate with the /y/-containing French words.