Abstract:
Language is the one human phenomenon that is affected
by anything and everything around human beings. Because
language is tremendously changing with each and every alteration
Man witnesses, it is 'mysterious' enough to provoke the linguist's
quests to know how and why language changes in line with the
changes that occur in and on our life.
In view of that, the field of linguistics has given birth to a
great number of sub-branches, and each of these branches
represents a query of one of the language varieties, aspects,
functions…etc. As for the language varieties, there are a lot of
linguistic branches that investigate why do languages have
different varieties (dialects, spoken varieties, lects,
vernaculars…).
One of the language varieties that may seem complicated
is the 'lect'. The latter is a linguistic term that refers to any variety
of a given language or dialect which is related to a given feature,
be it sex (sexlect), age (agelect), social class (sociolect),
individual (idiolect). The Agelect is the variety related to the
feature of age. It marks the distinction between different
generations in terms of age, and no one ignores that age
differences result in other differences: at the level of behaviour, of
mentality, and speech.
In a given speech community, one may find clearly
distinct age lects, and this is due to a set of salient factors. The
question to be raised, then, is whether this distinction will give
birth to a gap between different generations or to an interesting
medley of spoken varieties.
