This document discusses various linguistic concepts related to regional variation and dialects, including:
1) Regional dialects arise from variations in language associated with different places, and are an easy way to observe language variety.
2) Over time and distance, dialects can diverge and become unintelligible to one another, as seen with the evolution of Latin into the distinct languages of French, Spanish, and Italian.
3) Dialect atlases aim to map the geographical boundaries of linguistic features using lines called isoglosses, showing where different pronunciations, words, or syntactic features are used on either side.
4) Bundles of intersecting isoglosses often delineate clear dialect boundaries between regions.