Speech Community

Prepared by:

Elisa Roxas
Community
Speech
Group
 What is Speech Community?

The term speech community derived from the

German word “Sparachgemeinschaft.”

“Speech community is a group of people who

share a set of linguistic norms and expectations
with regard to how their language should be
used.”
 What is Speech Community?

“All people who is given language/dialect is called

speech community” – Lyons, 1970

“A speech community is any human aggregate

characterized by regular and frequent interaction by
means of a shared body of verbal signs and set off
from similar aggregates by significant differences in
language usage.” – Gumperz, 1971
 Characteristics of Speech Community

• Group of people using same language, dialect,

words and grammatical rule as standards.
• Share a specific set of norms for language use
through living and interacting together.
 Characteristics of Speech Community

• Monolingual or multilingual group held

together by frequency of social interaction
and set of from surroundings due to their
linguistic norms.
 Defining the Core of the Group

• Interlopers – people who have move

to a new dialect area. Depends on
their age, ability, and motivation.
• Insiders – people at the very core of
the social group.
 Defining the Core of the Group

• Outsiders – they are not part of the

mainstream, isolated, considered uncool.
• Aspirers – social ambitions beyond the
“immediate domain” (the local group).
 Aspects that may cause you to belong in
speech community or not

• Age
• Social Class
• Education
• Occupation/Hobbies
• Region/Space
• Family
• Religion
• Gender
• Ethnicity/Race
 Impact on Identity and Development

• Teachers need to create classroom

communities that not only embrace
diversity, but school students in discourse
practices allowing and encouraging them
to become bidialectal, bilingual, and
bicultural and support their identity.
 Impact on Identity and Development

• We can do this by teaching students the rules of

speech communities, by helping them
understand differences in the vernacular
language they bring to schools and the
language of schools—not in ways that discredit
their language and cultural heritage but in ways
that support its value and complexity.
 Questions
1. The English word for “Sparachgemeinschaft”?
2. people at the very core of the social group.
3. they are not part of the mainstream, isolated,
considered uncool.
4. people who have move to a new dialect area.
5. Give one aspect that cause you belong to
speech community
 Answers
1. Speech Community
2. Insiders
3. Outsiders
4. Interlopers
5. Age, Social Class, Education,
Occupation/Hobbies, Region/Space, Family,
Religion, Gender, Ethnicity/Race