Definition

1. Noun:
   • A group of people who share a common language or dialect: A "speech community" refers to a social group whose members use the same language variety and share norms for its use. This community is defined by linguistic interaction and shared understanding, not necessarily by geographic or political boundaries.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • Linguists study the New York City speech community to understand its unique vowel pronunciations.
  • The global English speech community is incredibly diverse, with many different standard and non-standard varieties.
  • Even within a small town, there can be multiple speech communities based on age, ethnicity, or social class.

Advanced Usage

• Concept in Sociolinguistics: The term is fundamental in sociolinguistics for analyzing how language variation correlates with social factors. A person can belong to multiple, overlapping speech communities (e.g., a professional community and a local neighborhood community).
  • Her research focuses on the bilingual speech community where Spanish and English are used interchangeably.

Variants and Related Words

• Linguistic community: A very similar term, often used interchangeably with "speech community."
• Community of practice: A related sociological concept referring to a group that shares practices, which often includes shared language use.

Synonyms

• Language community: A group bound by a common language.
• Dialect community: A group sharing a specific dialect.

Related Phrases

• Speech norms: The shared rules and conventions for language use within a speech community.
  • Adopting the local speech norms is key to being accepted into a new speech community.

Noun

1. people sharing a given language or dialect