1 - What are speech communities?

Summary

The study of speech communities is central to the understanding of human language and meaning. Speech communities are groups that share values and attitudes about language use, varieties and practices. These communities develop through prolonged interaction among those who operate within these shared and recognized beliefs and value systems regarding forms and styles of communication. While we are born with the ability to learn language, we do so within cultures and societies that frame the process of learning how to talk to others. This framing once exclusively occurred as face-to-face interactions within communities of speakers. Constant relocation, mass migration, transmigration, ever-evolving technology and globalization have transformed many societies and increased the need to provide more detailed descriptions and theories regarding the nature of speech communities. The importance of our growing understanding of speech communities remains one of the most significant projects faced by those interested in language, discourse and interaction. This chapter defines and identifies types of speech communities, provides the history of the term and examines its importance to the study of language and discourse in general.

The concept of speech community does not simply focus on groups that speak the same language. Rather, the concept takes as fact that language represents, embodies, constructs and constitutes meaningful participation in society and culture. It also assumes that a mutually intelligible symbolic and ideological communicative system must be at play among those who share knowledge and practices about how one is meaningful across social contexts. Thus as peoples relocate away from their families and home communities and build others, relationships and interactions continue and change, and are sustained through the use of evolving technology and media that enhances, recognizes and re-creates communities. These interactions constitute the substance of human contact and the importance of language, discourse and verbal styles in the representation and negotiation of the relationships that ensue. It is within speech communities that identity, ideology and agency are actualized in society.