Stylization is the knowing deployment of culturally familiar
styles and identities that are marked as deviating from those
predictably associated with the current speaking context. Dialect
stylization involves performing non-current-first-person personas
by phonological and related means, sometimes in play or parody.
Although these processes may seem to be very local, it is arguably
true that dialects are increasingly experienced in reflexive
and mediated environments that breed stylization. One of these
is light entertainment on radio; this article analyzes data
from English-language national radio broadcasts in Wales. Welshness
is self-consciously evoked in the data, partly through dialect
performance, where the variables (ou) and (ei) are a rich semiotic
resource, linked to nondialectal means of evoking Welsh cultural
stances and practices. Although stylization is a form of strategic
de-authentication, its ultimate relationship with authenticity
is complex. As a facet of cultural performance, stylization
can be part of a process of cultural reproduction, and I argue
that this is the best interpretation of the present data. As
a result, sociolinguistics may need to reconsider its assumptions
about cultural authenticity.