Meanings
plural speech communities · alternative speech-community
- human sciencesA group of people sharing a language, or a particular way of using that language
Another language of this group, Cantonese, probably ranks among the world's largest speech-communities.
1933, Leonard Bloomfield, Language, page 442 more examples
The phonetic laws always work without the consciousness of the speech community in which they act ; they are due wholly to physiological causes acting unknown to the will of the individual speaker.
1897, William Pierce Shepard, A contribution to the history of the unaccented vowels in Old French, page 17Research indicates that men and women in the mainstream US culture tend to form separate speech communities.
2006, Mary Barrett, Marilyn Davidson, Gender and Communication at Work, page 271
Origin
- GermanSprachgemeinschaft
- Englishspeech community
Probably a calque of German Sprachgemeinschaft.
More words from German
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Czech jazyková komunita, řečová komunita
- jazyková komunitagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- řečová komunitagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
French communauté linguistique
- communauté linguistiquegroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
German Sprachgemeinschaft
- Sprachgemeinschaftgroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
Indonesian komunitas tutur, komunitas wicara
- komunitas tuturgroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- komunitas wicaragroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- komunitas bahasagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
Korean 언어공동체
- 언어공동체 (eoneogongdongche)group of people sharing a language or way of speaking
Polish społeczność językowa, społeczność komunikacyjna
- społeczność językowagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- społeczność komunikacyjnagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- społeczność mownagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- wspólnota językowagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- wspólnota komunikacyjnagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- wspólnota mownagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
Russian языковое сообщество, речевое сообщество
- языковое сообщество (jazykovoje soobščestvo)group of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- речевое сообщество (rečevoje soobščestvo)group of people sharing a language or way of speaking
Slovak jazyková komunita, rečová komunita
- jazyková komunitagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- rečová komunitagroup of people sharing a language or way of speaking
Ukrainian мовна спільнота, мовне співтовариство
- мовна спільнота (movna spilʹnota)group of people sharing a language or way of speaking
- мовне співтовариство (movne spivtovarystvo)group of people sharing a language or way of speaking
Cite this entry
speech community. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/speech%20community
“speech community.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/speech%20community. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “speech community,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/speech%20community.
Source: speech community on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.