Covert prestige

In sociolinguistics, covert prestige is a type of scenario in which nonstandard languages or dialects are regarded to be of high linguistic prestige by members of a speech community. This is in contrast to the typical case of linguistic prestige, wherein only the standard varieties of a speech community are considered prestigious.[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.