difference between collquial and slang

[learning_english]

Could anyone explain me the difference between `collquial language' and `slang'
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Please let me know if I have made any mistakes in any of my sentences.

[Conchita]

Welcome Learning English!

Colloquial language is the one commonly spoken or used in conversational speech.

Slang is words or phrases used by certain groups of people in popular speech which are not used in correct or written language.

By the way, have you heard the expression 'slanging match'? It's a bitter argument where two people call each other rude names.

[Jamie (K)]

Keep in mind that slang is not the same as vulgar language. Most slang is perfectly clean, and it's even possible to use a lot of it in front of an authority figure (a boss, etc.) without offending anyone.

It's important to know this distinction, because people from some countries don't understand or feel the difference. Many people from France especially have this problem. I had a teacher from France who thought it was wrong to use the word "boss" in front of your boss, but actually it's not a problem.

Conchita's expression "slanging match" is a bit strange, because there's usually nothing insulting about slang. I think it must originally have come from the expression slinging match, which comes from the expression mudslinging, which means to throw insults back and forth as if they were mud. How it got from slinging to slanging, I'll never know.

[Narayanan Krishnaswamy]

In informal speech people use slang. So slinging slang and matching slang to slang should have given this expression.

[Tom]