sociolecten

Sociolecten are language varieties associated with particular social groups within a speech community. A sociolect, or sociolecten in plural, reflects social identity tied to factors such as socioeconomic status, age, ethnicity, gender, occupation, education level, and urban or rural background. The features of a sociolect can appear in vocabulary (slang, specialist terms, or regional variants), pronunciation (accent or phonetic shifts), grammar and syntax (preference for certain constructions), and discourse practices (pragmatics, turn-taking, politeness norms).

Sociolecten differ from dialects primarily in their social rather than geographic basis; a dialect is typically defined by a geographic region, whereas a sociolect is defined by social groups and contexts. Nevertheless, geographic variation can interact with social variation, producing regional sociolects. A speaker may use different sociolects across contexts in a process called style shifting or, more broadly, code-switching.

Sociolinguistic research on sociolecten examines how social variables correlate with linguistic variation, how members of a group perceive their own and others' speech, and how language change propagates within communities. Data are gathered through interviews, observation, and tasks that elicit choices among linguistic forms.

Because sociolecten are dynamic and overlapping, boundaries among them are not fixed, and individuals may belong to several sociolectal varieties across time and situations. Understanding sociolecten sheds light on language, identity, and social interaction.