ABSTRACT
Speakers of English sound rather different from one another. Variation between speakers may be caused by physical differences. Some people tense their vocal cords more when they speak and this gives them a hoarse, creaky voice quality. Some people talk very rapidly, and so forth. These differences are idiosyncratic and hard to predict. But there is also more systematic variation between speakers related to the social groups they belong to, their lifestyles and patterns of interaction with others and, on any one occasion, how they position themselves in relation to those they are talking to, the topic under discussion, etc. These are the topics we discuss in this chapter: we look at how tiny variations in the way we speak serve to position us in relation to others around us.
