Home › Glossary › Letter I

Identity marker

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A word, phrase, or image in poetry that signals or constructs aspects of personal or cultural identity

Detailed Definition
An identity marker in poetry is a linguistic or thematic element—such as dialect, cultural reference, pronoun usage, or naming practice—that signals the speaker’s or subject’s social, ethnic, gendered, or national identity, anchoring the poem in specific lived experience and community context.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Langston Hughes’s “I, Too,” “I am the darker brother” uses “darker brother” as an identity marker; In Audre Lorde’s “Coal,” “I am Black” asserts racial identity; In Joy Harjo’s “Remember,” “you are all people” marks Indigenous relational identity; In Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” “refugee” functions as an identity marker.
Additional Notes
An identity marker is a word, phrase, or symbol signaling cultural, gendered, or personal identity within a poem; may be explicit (e.g., “Black woman”) or implicit (e.g., dialect)—use to assert presence or challenge erasure.
Also Known As
Self-signifier cultural tag voice marker identity token Identity case Self-emphasis word
Skip to main content