Speech and Social Status in America

The importance of one's speech as an indicator of social status has received little attention in America. Several writers of books on social stratification have even suggested that the speech differences between members of upper and lower classes are very subtle and inconsequential. This article presents research evidence to the contrary, based primarily on three research projects conducted by the present author and two by other researchers. The findings suggest that persons' social status is revealed by their voice—even when content-free speech is used, e.g., counting from one to 20. Persons speaking one regional dialect of American English can identify the social status of persons speaking different dialects. The research also attempts to isolate the various speech qualities which reveal one's social status and to investigate the ability of speakers to disguise these qualities.