This article asserts that folk linguistic inquiry methods have much to propose critical sociolinguists concerned with linguistic inequalities and power structures. In as much as critical theory regards knowledge as inherently woven into power relations, the folk linguistics inquiry tradition displays that knowledge about language and the sociolinguistic world is not only the domain of academics but also resides, and is actioned, in the community. This article specifically examines the contribution folk linguistic inquiry methods can make to critical sociolinguistics. It is asserted that folk linguistic methods are not only well-placed to recognize and trace community-based claims of knowledge that engender and uphold inequalities between languages and speakers, but also enable us to localise sociolinguistic knowledge by grasping local phenomena via local world-views. Finally, this aids to decolonise sociolinguistics by voicing, justifying and indeed applying more ontologies and epistemologies of language than those from the West that generally still rule sociolinguistic scholarship.