ABSTRACT
Many of the most powerful movers and shakers in a given society participate in standard language culture, and it benefits them greatly. It is the linguistic equivalent of a secret society handshake. It helps open doors that would otherwise remain closed. Starting already in the 1950s, the Canadian linguist Wallace Lambert and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments in Quebec, noting that when they had bilingual people listen to the same passage in both French and English, the English version was judged more positively, according to a wide array of non-language-related features. John Baugh, like many who self-identify as African American, is fluent in more than one variety of American English: he is a speaker of African American English, Chicano English, and standardized US English. Baugh refers to this latter variety as his “professional voice,” or what many would consider his “White voice”.
