As others have suggested the fine gradations of meanings for these words is probably non-existent. For me, though cant is the jargon of thieves, perhaps cony-catchers. Jargon is sort of the specialized -ese of some professional group. (I speak a kind of technolect or nerdspeak, easily understood by my peers but disparaged by others.) Ideolect is the dialect of one person. Sociolect is the dialect of some social group. A standard language is the dialect of some privileged group. Slang seems to be the linguistics bits which haven't yet made it into the dictionary that scary groups speak (e.g., teens and the unwashed). Vernacular is a sort of homey, old-timey term for what the proles happen to speaking. The vulgar tongue is related to a patois, which is a (French) rustic dialect. The semantic field of glossonyms is hazy at best.

[Fixed typos.]

Last edited by zmjezhd; 12/09/2005 5:14 PM.