ABSTRACT
We have seen that any speech community is likely to be composed of different groups, groups which may operate with differing versions of the same language or even with discrete and separate languages. In this sense different varieties are ‘owned’ by different groups, and speech will vary according to the primary group affiliation of the speaker around crucial reference points such as class, region, ethnicity, gender and also age. Such reference points heavily shape our speech so that we inevitably signal much about our social identity in producing even (or especially) the most banal utterance.
