"I'm sitting here in Newfoundland, in Canada, writing a book about sociolinguistics, and you're out there somewhere, starting to read it. If you were here and could hear me talk -- especially if you were Canadian, especially if you had some training -- you could tell a lot about me. When I speak English, most people can tell I'm North American (I pronounce schedule with a [sk] sound), Canadian (I rhyme shone with gone, not bone), and probably from Quebec (I keep my socks in a bureau). And if I was wherever you are, I could probably tell a lot about your speech community and where you fit into it. The fact that we can do this is one of the things that interest sociolinguists..." It's rare to encounter a textbook that one will want to read cover to cover. But Gerard van Herk has written exactly that, introducing students to the field of sociolinguistics as the best teachers do: with excitement, humor, and deep knowledge. What is Sociolinguistics? is a tour through the major issues that define the field, such as region, status, gender, time, language attitudes, interaction, and style, while also exploring the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, culture and ethnicity, language contact, and education. The chapters contains useful and clear features including: Numerous innovative exercises and Spotlighted research, where the author introduces some key concepts discussed in foundational research and offers suggestions for reading the primary literature Further readings, glossary terms, chapter summaries, and text boxes that explore introduced concepts in greater depth for interested students The companion website offers PowerPoint slides for instructors and sample answers to questions, while providing students with further resources, including sound files and carefully curated links for further study.

What is Sociolinguistics? is a tour through the major issues that define the field, such as region, status, gender, time, language attitudes, interaction, and style, while also exploring the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, culture and ethnicity, language contact, and education, all introduced with excitement, humor, and deep knowledge. Explores the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, culture and ethnicity, language contact, and education Provides useful and clear learning features including numerous innovative exercises and project ideas, spotlighted research readings, glossary terms, chapter summaries, and text boxes The Companion Website for Instructors (www.wiley.com/go/vanherkprofs) has PowerPoint slides for each chapter with suggestions for framing class discussions and exercises, further examples on concepts discussed in the book, tips on additional readings to bring in, and ready-to-go slides for class presentation. The Companion Website for Students (www.wiley.com/go/vanherk) includes links for every chapter from standard sociolinguistic tools to links designed to spark discussion relevant to each chapter, including video clips, oral histories, articles, and more.

"I'm sitting here in Newfoundland, in Canada, writing a book about sociolinguistics, and you're out there somewhere, starting to read it. If you were here and could hear me talk—especially if you were Canadian, especially if you had some training—you could tell a lot about me. When I speak English, most people can tell I'm North American (I pronounce schedule with a [sk] sound), Canadian (I rhyme shone with gone, not bone), and probably from Quebec (I keep my socks in a bureau). And if I was wherever you are, I could probably tell a lot about your speech community and where you fit into it. The fact that we can do this is one of the things that interest sociolinguists..." It's rare to encounter a textbook that one will want to read cover to cover. But Gerard van Herk has written exactly that, introducing students to the field of sociolinguistics as the best teachers do: with excitement, humor, and deep knowledge. What is Sociolinguistics? is a tour through the major issues that define the field, such as region, status, gender, time, language attitudes, interaction, and style, while also exploring the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, culture and ethnicity, language contact, and education. The chapters contains useful and clear features including: Numerous innovative exercises and Spotlighted research, where the author introduces some key concepts discussed in foundational research and offers suggestions for reading the primary literature Further readings, glossary terms, chapter summaries, and text boxes that explore introduced concepts in greater depth for interested students The companion website offers PowerPoint slides for instructors and sample answers to questions, while providing students with further resources, including sound files and carefully curated links for further study.

Is American English in decline? Are regional dialects dying out? Is there a difference between men and women in how they adapt to linguistic variations? These questions, and more, about our language catapulted Robert MacNeil and William Cran—the authors (with Robert McCrum) of the language classic The Story of English—across the country in search of the answers. Do You Speak American? is the tale of their discoveries, which provocatively show how the standard for American English—if a standard exists—is changing quickly and dramatically. On a journey that takes them from the Northeast, through Appalachia and the Deep South, and west to California, the authors observe everyday verbal interactions and in a host of interviews with native speakers glean the linguistic quirks and traditions characteristic of each area. While examining the histories and controversies surrounding both written and spoken American English, they address anxieties and assumptions that, when explored, are highly emotional, such as the growing influence of Spanish as a threat to American English and the special treatment of African-American vernacular English. And, challenging the purists who think grammatical standards are in serious deterioration and that media saturation of our culture is homogenizing our speech, they surprise us with unpredictable responses. With insight and wit, MacNeil and Cran bring us a compelling book that is at once a celebration and a potent study of our singular language. Each wave of immigration has brought new words to enrich the American language. Do you recognize the origin of 1. blunderbuss, sleigh, stoop, coleslaw, boss, waffle? Or 2. dumb, ouch, shyster, check, kaput, scram, bummer? Or 3. phooey, pastrami, glitch, kibbitz, schnozzle? Or 4. broccoli, espresso, pizza, pasta, macaroni, radio? Or 5. smithereens, lollapalooza, speakeasy, hooligan? Or 6. vamoose, chaps, stampede, mustang, ranch, corral? 1. Dutch 2. German 3. Yiddish 4. Italian 5. Irish 6. Spanish

This Very Short Introduction deals with the social life of language, presenting a succinct account of the most important aspects - both "micro" and "macro" - of sociolinguistics, such as language variation, language attitudes, and the relationship between language and identity.

Sociolinguistics is the study of the interaction between language and society. In this classic introductory work, Janet Holmes examines the role of language in a variety of social contexts, considering both how language works and how it can be used to signal and interpret various aspects of social identity. Written with Holmes' customary enthusiasm, the book is divided into three sections which explain basic sociolinguistic concepts in the light of classic approaches as well as introducing more recent research. This fourth edition has been revised and updated throughout using key concepts and examples to guide the reader through this fascinating area, including: - New sections on: koines and koineisation linguistic landscapes New Englishes Stylisation language and sexuality societal approaches to attitude research forensic linguistics - A new selection of informative examples, exercises and maps -Fully updated further reading and references sections An Introduction to Sociolinguistics is an essential introductory text for all students of sociolinguistics and a splendid point of reference for students of applied linguistics. It is also an accessible guide for those who are simply interested in language and the many and varied uses we put it to.

New edition of widely-acclaimed textbook, including new sections on up-to-date topics for the 1990s.

Linguistics is a discipline with ever expanding boundaries and interests. Despite the narrow definition of linguistics which dominates academia, sub-fields continue to flourish and ways of doing linguistics continue to expand. As ways to do linguistics increase, and as approaches to linguistics accumulate over time, it becomes increasingly necessary for students of linguistics to have ways of understanding and comparing developments in linguistics.Sociolinguistic Metatheory is a book which explains foundational developments in linguistics by taking the past three decades of developments in sociolinguistics and relating them to contemporaneous developments in received linguistics. Sociolinguistic Metatheory takes the reader through the basic philosophical questions which drive linguistic research. It looks in detail at three models of sociolinguistics - Dell Hymes and the Ethnography of Communication, William Labov and Sociolinguistic Realism, and John Gumperz and Interactional Sociolinguistics - and focuses on such questions as: Where is language located? How is an utterance-based approach to linguistics different from a sentence-based approach? How do metatheoretical paradigm assumptions such as realism or relativism affect the development of linguistic theory? What interesting developments in linguistic theory and analysis have sociolinguistics provided?

This new and updated textbook gives students a coherent view of the complex interaction of language and society.

This edited volume provides up-to-date, succinct, relevant, and informative discussion about methods of data collection in sociolinguistic research. It covers the main areas of research design, conducting research, and sharing data findings with longer chapters and shorter vignettes written by a range of top sociolinguists, both veteran and emerging scholars. Here is the one-stop, go-to guide for the numerous quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods that are used in sociolinguistic research, ensuring that Data Collection in Sociolinguistics will be not only useful in the classroom but also as a reference tool for active researchers. For more information, visit sociolinguisticdatacollection.com.