A variety of terms distinguish the types of languages and vocabularies that exist outside the mainstream of standard formal language. here are twelve words and phrases that denote specific ideas of language use.
1. slang a slang is a language developed primarily to disguise conversation, originally due to a criminal enterprise, although the term is also loosely used to refer to informal slang.
2. cant cant is a synonym for slang and jargon and refers to the vocabulary of an internal group that uses it to mislead or exclude non-users.
3. colloquialism Anything that isn’t used in formal writing or conversation, including terms that could fall into one or more of most of the other categories on this list, is colloquialism. colloquial and colloquialism can be perceived as pejorative terms, but simply refer to informal terminology.
Colloquial language, be it words, idiomatic phrases or aphorisms, is often specific to a region; For example, variations of the term “carbonated beverage,” which include soft drinks, sodas, and Coca-Cola, differ in various areas of the United States.
4. Creole A creole is a more sophisticated development of a pidgin, derived from two or more major languages and used by people of all ages as a native language.
5. dialect a dialect is a way of speaking based on geographic or social factors.
6. Jargon Jargon is a set of words and phrases that apply to a specific activity or profession, such as a particular art form or athletic or recreational endeavor, or a medical or scientific subject. jargon is often necessary for accuracy when referring to comprehensive procedures and materials for a given activity.
However, in some fields, jargon is used to an excessive and gratuitous degree, often to hide the truth or mislead or exclude outsiders. various types of slang known to obstruct rather than facilitate communication are given names that are often appended with -ese or -speak, such as burocratese or corporate-speak.
7. slang this term loosely refers to the speech of a particular community or group, and is therefore loosely synonymous with many of the other words on this list.
8. lingua franca A lingua franca is a language that is often adopted as a common language to allow communication between speakers of different languages, although pidgins and creoles, both mixtures of two or more languages, are also considered lingua francas. .
9. patois patois loosely refers to a non-standard language, such as a creole, dialect, or pidgin, with a connotation of the social inferiority of speakers relative to those who speak the standard language.
10. pidgin A simplified language that arises from the efforts of people who speak different languages to communicate is a pidgin. these languages are usually developed to facilitate trade between people without a common language. over time, pidgins often become creoles.
11. slang a vocabulary of terms (at least initially) used in a specific subculture is slang. slang terms, whether invented words or those whose meanings are adapted to new meanings, develop out of a subculture’s desire to disguise, or exclude others, from its conversations. As American society becomes more youth-oriented and more homogeneous, the use of slang becomes more pervasive and subcultures continually invent new slang as older terms are appropriated by the general population.
12. vernacular a vernacular is a native language or dialect, as opposed to another language also in use, such as Spanish, French or Italian and their dialects compared to its mother tongue, Latin. alternatively, a vernacular is itself a dialect compared to a standard language (although it should be remembered that a standard language is simply a dialect or combination of dialects that has come to predominate).
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