what does it mean sociolinguistic variation?
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
(1) Pokemon and Emsr have given us excellent answers.
(2) May I give some examples of how social class determines speech?
(a) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom has been on the
throne since the early 1950s. I have read that she
no longer pronounces
some words in the way that she pronounced them in the 1950s. Why? Some
people say that she wants to pronounce her words in a way that is closer to
the way that most of her subjects speak.
(b) At the end of World War II, the royal ruler of country X spoke to his
people. There was one problem: the people could not understand him.
Why? Because he used very old-fashioned speech that only royal rulers in that
country used.
(c) Here in the United States of America, if you say
"He
don't speak English" and "I
ain't going," many people will consider you to be
an uneducated person. (As you know, educated people are expected to say "He
doesn't speak English" and "I'm not going.")
(d) Finally, I hear that in some languages there are some words that are said
usually by men and some words usually said by women. I think that the English
language permits men and women to equally use most words, but there are a
few words or expressions that American men do not use. (If they used them,
some people might think that those men were not "real" men.)