Superdiverse Repertoires and the Individual

The term ‘repertoire’ belongs to the core vocabulary of sociolinguistics.1 John Gumperz, in the introduction to the epochal Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication (Gumperz & Hymes 1972/1986) lists ‘linguistic repertoires’ as one of the ‘basic sociolinguistic concepts’ (Gumperz 1972/1986: 20–21) and defines it as ‘the totality of linguistic resources (i.e. including both invariant forms and variables) available to members of particular communities ’ (italics added). These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.