WHAT IS A CHRONOLECT? MAIN FEATURES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

A chronolect is a linguistic variant that refers to the different ways of speaking that people of different ages who speak the same language can have. These words can be classified as infantile, juvenile or adult.

Linguistics is the science that studies language and its evolution. This identifies that languages, within themselves, can have different variations.

An entire country may have Spanish as its official language, but throughout its territory this same language may have marked differences.

The word chronolect comes from the Greek "chronos" (time). The chronolect depends on the age of the speaker or even the era to which it belongs.

What is a linguistic variant?

The linguistic variants are all the differences that exist within the same language by segments, zones or demographic groups.

Main linguistic variants

1- Geolect

It is the regional or geographic variation that the language can have. Although both people speak Spanish, the words and expressions used by someone from the countryside tend to be different from those of the inhabitants of large cities.

The variation is even more significant when the regions of Latin America and Spain are compared.

2- Sociolect

It is the variation that occurs according to the social environment of the speaker. The upper and middle classes use terms that differ from the working classes.

In this variation, the profession and educational level of the people must also be taken into account.

3- Diaphase or situational variation

The type of language used depends on the environment in which the speaker develops. In this, the rules and regulations established according to the situation are taken into account.

Then, the same person can speak differently before a group of friends or in a work meeting.

In situational variations, the tone or register of language is classified from the most serious to the most informal: solemn, cultured, professional, standard, colloquial, slang, and vulgar. All of these variations can be found in everyday speech.

Chronolect main features

Unlike the previous linguistic variations, the chronolect depends on the age stage (age) in which the speaker is.

Children's chronolect

The linguistic variant associated with the changes in words or terms that can occur between young children is known as infantile chronolect.

For example, the use of the term "meow" to call a cat, or "peep" to name birds.

The infantile chronolect occurs for different reasons; one of these may be the little linguistic knowledge that infants have.

Animals and some objects are often called by the sound they make, such as "woof" for a dog or "run run" for a car.

In other cases, the infantile chronolect is given by the phonetic development in children. When they make their first sounds, these are usually "ma" or "ba" for ease.

It is not until they fully develop their skills that they can properly pronounce entire words.

For this reason, some childhood chronolects are due to the mispronunciation of words, such as saying "I stay" instead of "I love you", since the sounds "ie" or "ero" are still difficult to pronounce.

In addition to this, adults often encourage or imitate these expressions when engaging in conversations with young children.

Juvenile chronolect

The youth chronolect is usually the most widespread and popular form of the chronolect, as it is common to find it in the media aimed at adolescents and young adults.

The youth chronolect has a strong relationship with slang, which is a type of jargon common among a group of people.

It can be global or closed to small groups like a gang. An example would be the term to call the companions: "chabón" in Argentina, "uncle" in Spain or "güey" in Mexico.

This is usually informal and sometimes of short duration, since there are words that periodically tend to fall into disuse among the youth population.

For example, the Anglo-Saxon expression "groovy" became popular in the West in the 1970s and eventually disappeared. Today, instead, it is common to hear the term "cool."

Today, youth timetables can be more uniform thanks to the global communication provided by the Internet; for the first time, geographic variations of language can occur in several countries at the same time.

Expressions in English such as "selfie" or "gamer" are some of the most popular among young people around the world.

Chronolecto adult

The adult chronolect refers to the linguistic variations associated with the older age group.

This can refer to the way of speaking in a more formal or standard tone, unlike speakers in other stages.

For this reason, it is more common to use educated expressions (depending on the level of studies of the adult) or the use of terminology acquired by their profession.

For example, use the expression "congratulations" instead of "well there" when you hear positive news.

Adult chronolects start from a greater knowledge of the language, a wide experience when developing in formal situations thanks to their work life or a motivation to meet social expectations.

Another reason that gives rise to adult chronolects is diachronic variations, which are the linguistic changes that languages ​​have over time.

The Spanish of 1917 is different from that of 2017, and the difference will be greater the more time passes.

In this sense, adult chronolects can also originate when a person who was young in a certain decade continues to use some words from that time.

This can be observed especially among older adults; such is the case of calling a pilot "aviator" or a small child "toddler".

References

1. El Pensante (2016) The Lects. Languages ​​and language. Recovered from educacion.elpensante.com
2. Nordquist, R. (2017) Social Dialect or Sociolect Definition and Examples. Glossary of grammatical and rhetorical terms. Recovered from thoughtco.com
3. Pérez, J. (2017) Definition of chronolect. Definition. Recovered from definition.de
4. Educational Portal (2015) Linguistic variants. Educational Portal. Recovered from portaleducativo.net
5. Rhetorics (nd) Examples of chronolect. Rhetorical figures. Recovered from rhetoricas.com