In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language (non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group.[1][2]
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.[3] The term sociolect might refer to socially-restricted dialects,[4] but it is sometimes also treated as equivalent with the concept of register,[5] or used as a synonym for jargon and slang.[6][7]
Individuals who study sociolects are called sociolinguists. Sociolinguists study language variation. Sociolinguists define a sociolect by examining the social distribution of specific linguistic terms. For example, a sociolinguist would examine the use of the second person pronoun "you" within a given population. If one distinct social group used 'yous' as the plural form of the pronoun then this could indicate the existence of a sociolect. A sociolect is distinct from a regional dialect (regiolect) because social class rather than geographical subdivision substantiates the unique linguistic features.[8]