Dialectology is the study of dialects, which are varieties of a language
spoken by groups smaller than the total community of speakers of the
language. These varieties differ along many dimensions of “language
content, structure and function” (Francis (1983:1).This variation concerns
the lexicon, pronunciation, grammar, usage, social function, artistic and
literary expression. There is no language without variation. The latter can
be either incidental or systematic. In the first case, variation affects
individual linguistic items without seriously annoying the system, whereas
in the second, language is greatly affected.
Variability of grammars is the concern of both dialectology and typology.
Therefore, the focus here is on the typologically relevant issue of what
phonological features characterize each group of dialects. The study is
based on evidence drawn from comparing two aspects of Berber dialects of
the south and of the north-namely, syllable structure and spirantisation.
From these facts, specific requirements for an architecture of grammar
follow: a grammar must allow for variable outputs and preference
directions. How these requirements can be satisfied within an
Optimality-theoretic framework is the subject of the present paper.