Originally published in 1979, this book presents an interdisciplinary study of the role of social markers in speech.

List of contributors; Preface; 1. Phonetic and linguistic markers in speech John Laver and Peter Trudgill; 2. Speech as a marker of situation Penelope Brown and Colin Fraser; 3. Age markers in speech Hede Helfrich; 4. Sex markers in speech Philip M. Smith; 5. Personality markers in speech Klaus R. Scherer; 6. Speech markers and social class W. Peter Robinson; 7. Ethnicity markers in speech Howard Giles; 8. Social structure, groups and interaction Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson; 9. Speech markers in social interaction Howard Giles, Klaus R. Scherer and Donald M. Taylor; Subject index; Author index.