In sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...

, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language

Variety (linguistics)

In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...

 (a dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

) associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc.

Sociolects involve both passive acquisition of particular communicative practices through association with a local community, as well as active learning and choice among speech or writing forms to demonstrate identification with particular groups.

The concept of sociolect originally related to the distinctive linguistic forms that arise in oral communities. However, interaction in written and other media can also lead to sociolects, and many can be found in online communities

See also

• Argot
  Argot
  An Argot is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job,...
  
  
• Ethnolect
  Ethnolect
  Ethnolect is a variety of a language spoken by a certain ethnic/cultural subgroup and serves as a distinguishing mark of social identity. The term combines the concepts of an ethnic group and dialect....
  
  
• Idiolect
  Idiolect
  In linguistics, an idiolect is a variety of a language unique to an individual. It is manifested by patterns of vocabulary or idiom selection , grammar, or pronunciations that are unique to the individual. Every individual's language production is in some sense unique...
  
  
• Chronolect
  Chronolect
  In linguistics, a chronolect is a specific variety of language of which the characteristics are in particular determined by time-related factors. As such, it can be opposed to a sociolect, an ethnolect or a geolect. In historical linguistics, a chronolect is set more or less equal to a specific...
  
  
• Geolect
• Jargon
  Jargon
  Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
  
  
• Language and gender
• Language Profiling
• Slang
  Slang
  Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
  
  
• Sociolinguistics
  Sociolinguistics
  Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...