Subjective judgments are useful in linguistic studies to supplement information from objective language data, enlarge our knowledge of public conceptions of social speech communities (such as Negro speech), provide techniques for discussion of social markedness of standard and nonstandard varieties of English, and provide techniques for observations of laymen's evaluations and attitudes toward speech samples. In the Detroit Language Study, analysis of subjective judgments of taped speech supported the objective data that multiple negation, cluster reduction, and pronominal apposition correlate closely with socioeconomic status of the speaker. The characterization of Negro speech as a distinct variety of speech is confirmed by correct identification, from taped samples, of the race of the speaker over 80% of the time. The fact that the lower the socioeconomic status of the speaker, the more accurately it was identified indicates that the speech of the working class is socially marked and the speech of the middle class socially unmarked. (See also related documents AL 001 720 and ED 022 155.) (MK)