There are great impediments to the general use of a standard in pronunciation comparable to that existing in spelling (orthography). One is the fact that pronunciation is learnt 'naturally' and unconsciously, and orthography is 1 learnt deliberately and consciously. Large numbers of us, in fact, remain throughout our lives quite unconscious with what our 2 speech sounds like when we speak out, and it often comes as a 3 shock when we firstly hear a recording of ourselves. It is not a 4 voice we recognize at once, whereas our own handwriting is something which we almost always know. We begin the 5 'natural' learning of pronunciation long before we start learning to read or write, and in our early years we went on unconsciously 6 imitating and practicing the pronunciation of those around us for many more hours per every day than we ever have to spend 7 learning even our difficult English spelling. This is "natural", 8 therefore, that our speech-sounds should be those of our immediate circle; after all, as we have seen, speech operates as a means of holding a community and giving a sense of "belonging". 9 We learn quite early to recognize a "stranger", someone who speaks with an accent of a different community—perhaps only a few miles far. 10