Question

When someone from the north says she is going "tanning," whereas someone from the south describes the same activity by saying he is going to "lay out," what characteristic of language is being illustrated?

Answer 1

The answer is "dialect".

The use of the expression "dialect", regularly sent in informal settings, alludes (frequently to some degree deprecatingly) to a dialect that is socially subordinated to a territorial or national standard dialect, frequently truly related or hereditarily identified with the standard dialect, yet not really got from the standard dialect.