Variety (linguistics)

A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. "Variety" is a wider concept than style of prose or style of language.

Examples of varieties are:

• dialects, i.e. varieties spoken by geographically defined speech communities
• sociolects, i.e. varieties spoken by socially defined speech communities
• standard language, standardized for education and public performance
• idiolects, i.e. a variety particular to a certain person
• registers or diatypes, i.e. vocabulary or grammatical distinctions important in certain activities or professions (such as technical terminology, or jargon).

Varieties, such as dialects, idiolects and sociolects, can be distinguished not only by their vocabulary, but also by differences in grammar, phonology and prosody. For instance the tonal word accents of Scandinavian languages has differing realizations in many dialects. As another example, foreign words in different sociolects vary in their degree of adaptation to the basic phonology of the language.

In certain professional registers such as legalese it might be useful to make distinctions of grammar, that are not in regular use outside of the register. For instance English journalists or lawyers often use grammatical moods such as subjunctive mood or conditional mood, which are no longer used frequently by other speakers.

It is a matter of definition whether slang and argot are to be considered included in the concept of variety or of style. Colloquialisms and idioms are usually understood as limited to variation of lexicon, and hence of style.

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