In linguistics, the name of social variants recognizes the different variations that exist between people's ways of speaking, different from language differences.
It happens that speech is by no means an exact science, but on the contrary its use depends on a family and social transmission, and therefore of certain processes that influence the learning that a person has of language and its use.
The name of ‘social variants’ encompasses a huge range of differentiations that influence the way people speak, within which the socioeconomic stratum in which each one is.
In general, the social relationship that is presented is that people with a wealthier economic situation have reached levels of education that allow them to have a richer vocabulary and to be able to express with a very wide range of concepts something that a less educated person only achieves. with a smaller spectrum of words, causing them to start using new expressions that with the passage of time become their own. Many of the words known as "popular" and transformed into typical of the different regions owe their origin to these new terms. "
See also: Examples of Regional and Generational Lexicon
The category of ‘social’ can only be discussed on the basis that linguistic variations also have a lot to do with what geographical. It happens that it is easy to notice that in the different countries that handle a language it is common for large differences to appear in the way of communicating: expressions, typical words or rhythmic forms of speaking vary according to each country (or even regions within it). In any case, this variation is considered a social one, since it ultimately occurs with regard to different societies.
In that sense, each reason why language is modified constitutes a social variant. They are listed below, detailing their scope.
- Geographical variants: as said, the area of residence (and especially that of internalization of language) is fundamental for people's speech. The particular way that each society has to carry out speech is called dialect, although lately the term was limited to the speech of peoples that no longer exist, and was replaced by geolect.
- Ethnic variants: Beyond geographic borders, ethnic groups share modes of expression that sometimes give rise to so-called ethnolects.
- Gender variantsAlthough in the West it happens less and less, at some point it was common for men to communicate in a different way than women. These characteristics are known as sexolect.
- Diachronic variants: the transformations of language are carried out in time, so it is to be expected that two people from different eras do not share greater codes in language.
- Age variant: within the same moment, it is common for people of different ages to know different terms. Youth or adolescent jargons are part of this variation. These variations are known as chronolects.
- Professional variants: People engaged in the same activities often share ways of expressing themselves. Included here are the technicalities of the different scientific disciplines, known as technolects.
- Instructional variants: As said, the level of education achieved by a person is a determining factor in their way of communicating.
- Contextual variants: the same people in certain contexts speak in one way and in others in another. The well-known 'registry' shows this, constituting a new variant.
- Sacred languages: common in a few tribes, they are different ways of communicating that people have only for acts of greater religious content, according to their beliefs.
- Marginal variants: It is common for the areas where people are marginalized (mainly prisons, but also in certain cases precarious settlements) form their own jargons, which represent a new social variant.
