Religiolect

{{Short description|Language variety of a religious community}}

A religiolect is the language variety belonging to a specific religious or secularized community with its own history and development.{{Cite journal |last=Hary |first=Benjamin |date=2011 |title=Religiolect |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/p/pod/dod-idx/religiolect.pdf?c=fia;idno=11879367.2011.015 |journal=Jewish Languages |location=Ann Arbor |publisher=University of Michigan |pages=45}}{{Cite journal |last1=Hary |first1=Benjamin |last2=Wein |first2=Martin J. |date=22 January 2013 |title=Religiolinguistics: on Jewish-, Christian- and Muslim-defined languages |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ijsl-2013-0015/html |journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language |issue=220 |doi=10.1515/ijsl-2013-0015 |issn=1613-3668|url-access=subscription }} Coined by Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies Benjamin Hary in his 1992 book Multiglossia in Judeo-Arabic, the term was originally applied to the Jewish linguistic spectrum, but has been expanded to other religious contexts. In contrast to an ethnolect, which marks its speakers as members of a shared ethnic group, a religiolect does not involve ethnic background but rather religious background.

Religiolects have been studied in the context of a number of religious communities: Judaism, Islam,{{Cite journal |last=Versteegh |first=Kees |date=23 September 2020 |title=Can a Language be Islamic? |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/eurs/18/1/article-p5_2.xml |journal=Eurasian Studies |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=5–25 |doi=10.1163/24685623-12340081 |issn=1722-0750|url-access=subscription }} Christianity (Christianese), the Christian Haugean movement,{{Cite book |last=Garcia de Presno |first=Jostein |url= |title=Møter og mangfold: Religion og kultur i historie, samtid og skole |date=2022 |publisher=Cappelen Damm Akademisk |editor-last=Kleive |editor-first=H. V. |location=Oslo |language=no |chapter=Vekkelsens vokabular. Smakebiter fra haugianernes religiolekt ca. 1800–1840 |editor-last2=Lillebø |editor-first2=J.G. |editor-last3=Sæther |editor-first3=K.-W. |chapter-url=https://cdforskning.no/cdf/catalog/view/156/835/6646}} The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonese),{{Cite journal |last=Stanley |first=Joseph A. |date=1 December 2020 |title=6. The Absence of a Religiolect Among Latter-Day Saints in Southwest Washington |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/pads/article-abstract/105/1/95/167300/6-The-Absence-of-a-Religiolect-Among-Latter-Day?redirectedFrom=PDF |journal=Publication of the American Dialect Society |volume=105 |issue=1 |pages=95–122 |doi=10.1215/00031283-8820642 |issn=0002-8207|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Forbush |first=Allyn |date=Winter 2023 |title=Perceptions of Mormonese: How Association with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Changes Perceptions of the Religiolect |url=https://schwa.byu.edu/files/2023/04/Winter2023_AllynForbush.pdf |journal=Schwa |issue=28 |via=Brigham Young University}} Islamic and Christian communities in post-Soviet Russia,{{Cite book |last=Sibgatullina |first=Gulnaz |title=Languages of Islam and Christianity in Post-Soviet Russia |date=2020 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-42644-3 |series=Studies in Slavic and general linguistics |volume=46 |location=Leiden; Boston |chapter=Introduction}} Baháʼí,{{Cite journal |last=Masumian |first=Adib |date=1 June 2015 |title=An Introduction to the Bahá'í Religiolect |url=https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/bsr.21.1.101_1 |journal=Baha'i Studies Review |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=101–120 |doi=10.1386/bsr.21.1.101_1 |issn=1354-8697|url-access=subscription }} Buddhism, and others.