isogloss

Meanings

1. A line on a map indicating the geographical boundaries of a linguistic feature.
2. A linguistic feature shared between languages or language varieties, through any of various mechanisms, whether genetic inheritance or other linguistic forces.

Etymology

From iso- + gloss, ultimately from Ancient Greek ἴσος (ísos, “equal”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *wi- (“to separate”)) + γλῶσσα (glôssa, “tongue; language”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *glōgʰs).