Language in Society

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American English

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Language in Society
GENERAL EDITOR
Peter Trudgill, Chair of English Linguistics, 
University of Fribourg
ADVISORY EDITORS
J. K. Chambers, Professor of Linguistics, 
University of Toronto
Ralph Fasold, Professor of Linguistics, 
Georgetown University
William Labov, Professor of Linguistics, 
University of Pennsylvania
Lesley Milroy, Professor of Linguistics, 
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
1 Language and Social Psychology, 
edited by 
Howard Giles and Robert N. St Clair
2 Language and Social Networks (2nd edn.), 
Lesley Milroy
3 The Ethnography of Communication
(3rd edn.), 
Muriel Saville‐Troike
4 Discourse Analysis, 
Michael Stubbs
5 The Sociolinguistics of Society: 
Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Vol. I, 
Ralph Fasold
6 The Sociolinguistics of Language: 
Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Vol. II, 
Ralph Fasold
7 The Language of Children and 
Adolescents: 
Suzanne Romaine
8 Language, the Sexes and Society, 
Philip 
M. Smith
9 The Language of Advertising, 
Torben 
Vestergaard and Kim Schrøder
10 Dialects in Contact, 
Peter Trudgill
11 Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, 
Peter 
Mühlhäusler
12 Observing and Analysing Natural 
Language: A Critical Account of 
Sociolinguistic Method, 
Lesley Milroy
13 Bilingualism (2nd edn.), 
Suzanne 
Romaine
14 Sociolinguistics and Second Language 
Acquisition, 
Dennis R. Preston
15 Pronouns and People, 
Peter Mühlhäusler 
and Rom Harré
16 Politically Speaking, 
John Wilson
17 The Language of the News Media, 
Allan Bell
18 Language, Society and the Elderly, 
Nikolas 
Coupland, Justine Coupland, and Howard Giles
19 Linguistic Variation and Change, 
James 
Milroy
20 Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. I: 
Internal Factors, 
William Labov
21 Intercultural Communication (3rd edn.), 
Ron Scollon, Suzanne Wong Scollon, and 
Rodney H. Jones
22 Sociolinguistic Theory (2nd edn.),
J. K. Chambers
23 Text and Corpus Analysis, 
Michael Stubbs
24 Anthropological Linguistics, 
William Foley
25 American English: Dialects and Variation 
(3rd edn.), 
Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling
26 African American Vernacular English, 
John 
R. Rickford
27 Linguistic Variation as Social Practice, 
Penelope Eckert
28 The English History of African American 
English, 
edited by Shana Poplack
29 Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. II: 
Social Factors, 
William Labov
30 African American English in the Diaspora, 
Shana Poplack and Sali Tagliamonte
31 The Development of African American 
English, 
Walt Wolfram and Erik R. Thomas
32 Forensic Linguistics, 
John Gibbons
33 An Introduction to Contact Linguistics, 
Donald Winford
34 Sociolinguistics: Method and Interpretation, 
Lesley Milroy and Matthew Gordon
35 Text, Context, Pretext: Critical Issues in 
Discourse Analysis, 
H. G. Widdowson
36 Clinical Sociolinguistics, 
Martin J. Ball
37 Conversation Analysis: An Introduction, 
Jack Sidnell
38 Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities, 
and Institutions, 
John Heritage and Steven 
Clayman
39 Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. III: 
Cognitive and Cultural Factors, 
William 
Labov
40 Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, 
Observation, Interpretation, 
Sali A. 
Tagliamonte
41 Quotatives: New Trends and Sociolinguistic 
Implications, 
Isabelle Buchstaller

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American English
DIALECTS AND VARIATION
Third Edition
Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling
Enhancements and Exercises by Caroline Myrick and Joel Schneier

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This third edition first published 2016
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Edition History: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. (1e, 1998; 2e, 2006)
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Cover image: fStop Images GmbH/Alamy
Set in 10.5/13pt Ehrhardt by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India
1 2016

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Contents
Companion Website 
x
List of Figures 
xi
Preface xiii
Phonetic Symbols 
xvii