Style
the choice of a type of language depending on who you're talking to, what you're talking about and where you are (1)
Dialect
a particular form of a language which is specific to one region or social group (1)
Variety/code
any set of linguistic forms which patterns according to social factors" (1)
Linguistic repertoire
the distinguishable varieties (or codes) which are available for use in different social contexts" (1)
Speech function
the reason why someone is speaking (1)
H and L varieties
the 'High' and 'Low' versions of a language which are used for different purposes in a society (2)
Domain
situations where people typically use a particular language or type of language (2)
Diglossia
two forms of what's effectively the same language which are used in different situations or for different purposes by a speech community (2)
Bilingualism with or without diglossia
the individual use of two languages or two forms of the same language (2)
Polyglossia
the use of several languages (or forms of a language) for different purposes (2)
Code-switching
situations where speakers switch between two or more languages or language varieties whilst they're speaking (or writing) (2)
Situational switching
switching language or dialect according to the situation you're in (who you're speaking to or where you are) (2)
Metaphorical switching
code-switching for rhetorical reasons, drawing on the associations of both codes" (2)
Code-mixing
rapid switching" (between codes - Holmes prefers to call this 'metaphorical switching'" (2)
Fused lect
the language that results when you're switching rapidly between codes (2)
Lexical borrowing
borrowing words from another language when you don't have a good term available in your own one (like 'fika'!) (2)
Intra sentential code switching
code-switching in the middle of a sentence (2)
Embedded and matrix language
the suggestion that there'll always be one language which provides the basic framework of a code-switched utterance (the matrix language) and another from which the 'code-switched' part of the utterance is taken (the embedded language) (2)
Inter-sentential code switching
code-switching after the end of a sentence (2)
Language shift
when a community moves from using one language for most purposes to using a different language (3)
Language death
when a language disappears altogether (as happened when the last native speaker of the Manx language died in 1974) (3)
Language loss
when a speaker stops being able to use a language she once used regularly because she's forgotten how to (3)
Language maintenance
the way in which a minority language is kept from language death in different ways (3)
Bilingual education
educating children in two languages, as in Wales (3)
Ethnolinguistic vitality
a measure of the likelihood that a language will be maintained", consisting of three factors: "the status of the language reflected by attitudes towards it ... the size of the group who uses the language and their distribution ... and ... the extent to w
Language revival
what happens when a community succeeds in revitalising a language in danger of disappearing (3)
Vernacular
(usually) "the most colloquial variety in a person's linguistic repertoire" (4)
Standard
... generally [a variety] which is written, and which has undergone some degree of regularisation or codification" (4)
Inner-circle, outer circle and expanded circle varieties of English
Brach Kachru's distinction between places where English is a native language (inner circle), places where English is in widespread use, despite not being a native language, and places where the use of English is becoming more and more important (4)
Lingua franca
a language serving as a regular means of communication between different linguistic groups in a multingual speech community" (4)
Pidgin
a language with no native speakers that has developed "as a means of communication between people who do not have a common language" (4)
Lexifier or superstrate
the language which supplies most of the vocabulary to a pidgin (4)
Substrate
the languages which influence the grammatical structure" (of a pidgin) (4)
Creole
a language which "has acquired native speakers" (4)
Creolisation
the process by which a pidgin becomes a creole" (4)
Acrolect, basilect and mesolect
the forms of a creole which are closest to the standard variety, furthest away and 'in the middle', respectively (4)
Decreolisation
in a situation where a creole is used side-by-side with a standard language, the process by which "features of the creole tend to change in the direction of the standard variety" (4)
National language
the language of a political, cultural and social unit" (5)
Official language
a language which may be used for government business" (5)
De facto and de jure status of languages
the actual and legal statuses of languages (i.e. some languages may be used in an area, but not be recognised as official languages) (5)
Language planning
the process by which a language becomes an official language (5)
Status or prestige planning
the gaining of status for a particular language or variety (5)
Corpus planning
building up a list of words and expressions for a language (5)
Acquisition planning
(often called 'language-in-education' planning) the process by which sociolinguists actively try to increase the acceptance of a language in the community where it's going to be used (5)
Codification
regularising and standardising a language (5)
Accent
a variety of speech which differs from other varieties in terms of pronunciation (including intonation), which identifies the speaker in terms of where they come from and/or which class they belong to (6)
Regional dialect
a way of pronouncing a language which is common to a region (6)
Isogloss
boundary lines between regions using different dialects (6)
Dialect chain
links between related dialects across a large geographical area (e.g. the links between Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) (6)
Social dialect
a dialect associated with a particular social group or class (6)
Sociolinguistic patterns
patterns indicating links between particular dialects and particular social groupings (6)
Methodology
the way you do something (like carrying out a piece of research, for example) (6)
Sharp stratification
clear and stable differences between regional or social dialects (6)
Fine stratification
unstable and very delicate differences between language use which is more based on idiosyncratic or individual usage, and thus may change rapidly (6)
Gender-exclusive features
words or other forms of a language which are only used by one gender or the other (7)
Gender-preferential features
words or other forms of a language which one gender or another tends to use more than the other gender (7)
Gender and social class
the relationship between what gender you are and which class you belong to (7)
Age grading
the differences in the use of language which are connected with people of different ages (7)
Ethnicity
concerning the ethnic group people belong to (8)
African American Vernacular English
a distinct variety of English used by African Americans (8)
British Black English
a distinct variety of English used by black people in Britain (8)
Maori English
a distinct variety of English used by Maoris in New Zealand (8)
Social network
the different groups of people you have contact with on a regular basis (8)
Network density
the degree to which people in one of your networks are in touch with one another (8)
Uniplex networks
a relationship which is limited to only one area in a network (8)
Multiplex networks
interactions with others along several dimensions" (8)
Community of practice
groups of people defined by things that everyone in a particular network does, defining the network by the activity (such as playing ice hockey together or practising handicrafts), rather than by gender or class (8)
Constructions of social identity
the way in which people build up social identities for themselves from the various networks they belong to (8)
Speaker innovation
the way speakers (and writers) introduce new words or forms of the language (9)
Change from above
the spread of a prestige form of a language (9)
Change from below
the spread of an 'L' or vernacular form of language (9)
Wave theory
a metaphor for the way change spreads through a community - different waves (representing different social groups, genders, networks, etc) intersect and interact in a community to produce language change (9)
Lexical diffusion
the sound changes which spread from word to word (such as the way young Londoners tend to say /l�f/ for 'laugh', but still say /ba??/ for 'bath' - i.e. this isn't a dialectal change which affects all such sounds) (9)
Apparent-time change
comparing the way the speech of people from different age groups differs" (9)
Real-time change
comparing the way speech changes for the same group of people over a longer time period (9)
Audience design
(10)
Speech accommodation
(10)
Speech convergence
(10)
Speech divergence
(10)
Referee design
(10)
Labovian methodology
(10)
Observer's paradox
(10)
Hypercorrection
(10)
Register
(10)