ABSTRACT
This chapter considers research undertaken into language and identity that points to a conceptual shift in the ways in which the relationship between linguistic variation in Englishes and identity are theorised. In recent years, sociolinguistic research has moved increasingly from a preoccupation with correlating variability against non-linguistic variable categories such as social class, ethnicity and gender to considering both the content and the context in which variation occurs. This is a shift towards considering the linguistic properties of not only what is spoken, but also the context within which speech occurs. In addition, although traditionally associated with speech, sociolinguistic research is also becoming increasingly concerned with written forms of Englishes that depict orthographic representations of variation linked to region and a place identity.
