Covert prestige

In sociolinguistics, covert prestige is the high social prestige with which certain nonstandard languages or dialects are regarded within a speech community, though usually only by their own speakers. This is in contrast to the typical case of standard varieties holding widespread and often consciously acknowledged high prestige—that is, overt prestige—within a speech community.[1]

The concept of covert prestige was first introduced by linguist William Labov, when he observed speakers preferring to use a nonstandard dialect, even though the speakers considered that dialect to be inferior. Labov proposed an explanation for the continued usage of the nonstandard dialect: to form a sense of group identity in informal speech situations.[2]

  1. ^ Eckert, Penelope; Rickford, John R. (2002). Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511613258. ISBN 0-521-59191-0. S2CID 41541420.
  2. ^ Labov, William (1966). "The Social Stratification of (r) in New York City Department Stores" (PDF). Washington D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.