Language Varieties: History, Geography, and Sociocultural Aspects
Language Varieties: An Introduction
Language exists as a code that is shaped by its community members, serving as a model or standard of correct usage. It is diverse linguistically due to the specific use by each speaker or group of speakers.
Historical Varieties
Over time, languages undergo evolution, manifested by changes in their constituent signs, affecting the signifier, the signified, or both.
Geographical Varieties
A dialect is a system of signs with its own peculiarities, but without sufficient differentiation from another system with which it constitutes a single language.
Sociocultural Varieties
Within a community, sociolects constitute social methods of identification. Depending on the degree of directives or distinguished speakers, the level of language varies: a cultivated level characterized by its wealth of expressive resources, an average level, and a standard or vulgar level reflecting a poor education.
Among the sociocultural varieties, jargon or slang stands out. Jargon is defined as the peculiar way of talking within certain social groups, characterized mainly by the use of a specific lexicon. Youth slang highlights include:
- Creation of new words
- Use of Anglicisms
- Vague expressions
- Idioms
- Wildcard expressions, including taboo words and swearing
- Changing meanings of existing words
Situational Variety
People play different roles within the social structure of a community, according to their social position and occupation. Their behavior varies according to the communicative context, leading to different linguistic registers.
Linguistic Registers
The formal register is related to professional, literary, academic, or scientific use of language. It is used reflexively with correction, range, and fluency. It is characterized by varied use of syntactic structures and richness and precision in lexicon. Slang is avoided, and the speaker maintains a level of formality.
- Respect expressive nuances of phonetics
- Avoid interjections
- Use phrases to highlight ideas
- Use varied links, tenses, and syntax
- Employ a rich and precise vocabulary
The informal register is characterized by poor language resources, simple syntax, vague vocabulary, and frequent improprieties of any kind. This includes:
- Displacement of accents
- Voice changes
- Reduction and formation of diphthongs
- Sound suppression and addition
- Confusion and change of consonants
- Use of articles before proper names
- Misuse of pronouns
- Misuse of prepositions
- Misuse of conjunctions
- Fusion of words
- Mistakes
- Reduced vocabulary
- Use of improprieties
The colloquial register is used by speakers in their social relationships with people they trust. It is very expressive, with a tendency towards comfort and expressiveness, and includes:
- Careless pronunciation
- Reflects the subjectivity of the speaker
- Anacolutha (appearance of broken sentences)
- Use of suffixes
- Tendency to omission
- Simple syntax
- Imprecise use of lexicon
- Shortened words
- Frequent use of phrases
The standard register is used with correction, avoiding slang. This register is used by social media and education and is common among middle-level speakers.