Definition of "sociolect"

The French literary critic Roland Barthes has paid special attention to the relationship between the individual language ("idiolect") and the language of a collective of speech ("sociolect"). Public life is characterized by "social multilingualism." There are a number of languages, such as the language of the church, the language of the prison, the language of the children, the language of the ruling elite, and other "social languages."

1984, Yu[ri] Suvaryan, V[aleri] Mirzoyan, R[uben] Hayrapetyan, “Language and Speech in the System of Public Administration”, in Public Administration: Theory and History, Yerevan, Armenia: “Gitutuin” Publishing House of the NAS RA [National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia], page 277

[…] I believe that it is mistaken to maintain that the language of ideology is a discrete ‘sociolect’, a sort of meta-language which draws upon but remains distinct from the language of everyday life.

1984, John B[rookshire] Thompson, “Theories of Ideology and Methods of Discourse Analysis: Towards a Framework for the Analysis of Ideology”, in Studies in the Theory of Ideology, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, page 89

This paper uses sociolect as a cover term for slang, technical jargon (professionalisms), and argot. From the point of view of its secret nature, two kinds of sociolects are distinguished: slang and technical jargon on the one hand, and argot on the other, with the difference being in the presence or lack of an intention of secrecy.

1999, Pavol Odaloš, “Mi a szociolektus és mi a szleng? [What is a Sociolect and what is Slang?]”, in Anna Fenyvesi, Tamás Kis, Judit Szilvia Várnai, editors, Mi a szleng? Tanulmányok a szleng fogalmáról [What is Slang? Studies on the Concept of Slang] (Szlengkutatás [Slang Research]; 3), Debrecen, Hungary: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó [Kossuth University Press], English summary, page 50

In sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language (a register) associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group (precisely termed ethnolect), 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 grounds. Sociolinguists define a sociolect by examining the social distribution of specific linguistic terms.

2014, Peter Wuteh Vakunta, “Literary Camfranglais in Mercédès Fouda’s Je parle camerounais : pour un renouveau francofaune”, in Camfranglais: The Making of a New Language in Cameroonian Literature, Mankon, Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group, page 82, footnote 26