Sociolinguistics 5, Exercise 1: overt or covert? Standard pronunciation in a job interview overt prestige: standard and "formal" features expressing power and status Fraternity men saying -in covert prestige: the author links -in to projecting working-class traits (Kiesling, 1998); vernacular features expressing solidarity and identity A student using AAVE to be accepted covert prestige: a vernacular variety used for group acceptance (Chun, 2001) The first example is my illustration of the overt-prestige definition; the other two are the source's own.