Language Variation

This article starts with exploring the different forms of variation that someone can encounter. In so doing, I handle them in how language varies across geographical, social and ethnic factors and I try to build a bridge with how language variation is deeply intertwined with the process of identity construction. Whether through regional accents, social speech patterns or ethnic-based linguistic practices, the way someone speaks reflects someone’s subscribed identity as well as the way (institutional) significant others ascribe a language user to a given identity taxonomy. Therefore, the link between language variation and identity construction is the core of my approach here. I draw on two notions to further enrich the understanding of how language variation and identity work. These notions are “enregisterment”, as articulated by Agha (2007), and the “total language fact” as articulated by Silverstein (1976).