Sociophonetics and identity

Research in sociolinguistics and sociophonetics has long relied on appeals to “identity” as a means of accounting for patterns of variation in language use. Yet “identity” is a famously nebulous term, making it sometimes difficult to apply effectively as an explanatory construct. This chapter outlines some of the primary ways in which identity has been used in the sociophonetics literature. It offers a taxonomy for understanding the different meanings that identity can have and, through reviews of key literature, describes how different types of identity-linked phenomena can be approached in sociophonetic investigations. Overall, the chapter aims to illustrate the benefit that detailed analyses of phonetic variation can have for studies of identity and language, as well as the social richness that a nuanced understanding of identity can offer to sociophonetics.