Sociolinguists define a sociolect by examining the social distribution of specific linguistic terms. For example, a sociolinguist would examine the use of the second person pronoun “you” for its use within the population.
What do sociolect mean?
: a variety of a language that is used by a particular social group.
For example, among older European-American speakers in Charleston, South Carolina, the absence of r in words such as bear and court is associated with aristocratic, high-status groups (McDavid 1948) whereas in New York City the same pattern of r-lessness is associated with working-class, low-status groups (Labov 1966).
