John J. Gumperz, Who Mapped the Infrastructure of Spoken Language, Dies at 91

Every time you open your mouth to speak, you give yourself away. The way you talk says more about you than mere words ever could. It telegraphs your ethnic background, your level of education, your geographic history – the things that place you in the hierarchy of your society.

That sometimes uncomfortable truth is familiar to anyone who has ever struggled to impress a potential boss during a job interview, or had a misunderstanding with a bureaucrat behind a window at a government agency, or traded jokes with the guy at the local deli counter. Every conversation you have is a delicate negotiation of tone and nuance – especially with strangers in urban settings, where people from different backgrounds and cultures rub up against one another constantly.