The Acoustics of Identity: Linguistic Passports Beyond Empire and Essentialism
type: CreativeWork
description: "On the basis of evidence from the case studies, the author argues: (1) Standard American English (SAE) is not neutral, but rather clearly associated with a professional, educated, ""white,"" US-American, middle class experience; (2) Even more so than grammatical knowledge, the mastery of an accent (phonological repertoire) suggests lived experience, or ""native speaker"" status, which in turn suggests the ""authenticity"" of a speaker's identity; (3) Codeswitching can be understood as both a sociocultural credential and liability; and (4) ""White/whiteness""---as a social identity---is not monolithic and does not necessarily refer to skin color. It also operates as a metaphor indexing privilege within a complex set of possibilities. A theory of acoustic identity informs contemporary debates and discussions over public and cultural policy in sectors that include education, government, and industry."
abstract: "On the basis of evidence from the case studies, the author argues: (1) Standard American English (SAE) is not neutral, but rather clearly associated with a professional, educated, ""white,"" US-American, middle class experience; (2) Even more so than grammatical knowledge, the mastery of an accent (phonological repertoire) suggests lived experience, or ""native speaker"" status, which in turn suggests the ""authenticity"" of a speaker's identity; (3) Codeswitching can be understood as both a sociocultural credential and liability; and (4) ""White/whiteness""---as a social identity---is not monolithic and does not necessarily refer to skin color. It also operates as a metaphor indexing privilege within a complex set of possibilities. A theory of acoustic identity informs contemporary debates and discussions over public and cultural policy in sectors that include education, government, and industry."
author: Filmer, Alice Ashton
language: eng
keywords: Education, Language and Literature
date published: 2015-09-28T15:15:44Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:27Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/86595