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.Some writers in sociolinguistics use the term lect, apparently a back-formation from specific terms such as dialect and idiolect.Examples of varieties are:dialects, i.e. varieties spoken by geographically defined speech communitiesidiom is a term neutral to the dialect–language distinction and is used to refer to the studied communicative system (that could be called either a dialect or a language) when its status with respect to this distinction is irrelevant (thus it is a synonym to language in the more general sense);sociolects, i.e. varieties spoken by socially defined speech communitiesstandard language, standardized for education and public performanceidiolects, i.e. a variety particular to a certain personregisters (or diatypes), i.e. the specialised vocabulary and/or grammar of certain activities or professionsethnolects, for an ethnic groupecolects, an idiolect adopted by a household
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