Language in Society

Figure 10.2
Class and style stratification for postvocalic 
r
289
Figure 10.3
Style as audience design 
295
Figure 12.1
Percentage of 
‐s
suffix absence in the speech and writing
of European Americans and African Americans 
341
Figure A.1
The Northern Cities Vowel Shift (repeated from Figure 5.7) 
372
Figure A.2
The Southern Vowel Shift (repeated from Figure 5.8) 
373
Figure A.3
The Northern California Vowel Shift (repeated from Figure 5.9) 
373

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The third edition of 
American English: Dialects and Variation
offers yet another episode 
in the ongoing narrative of language variation in American English. It started for the first 
author more than four decades ago, with Walt Wolfram and Ralph W. Fasold’s 
The Study 
of Social Dialects in American English
(1974), and passed through Wolfram’s 
Dialects and 
American English
(1991) on the way to the first (1998) and second (2006) editions of 
American English: Dialects and Variation
. The current edition is a thoroughly revised and 
updated version, but we hope that it is more than that. In addition to chronicling some 
of the breakthrough developments in the field, we have added a greatly expanded discus-
sion of language and ethnicity, now its own chapter, and radically restructured a couple 
of other chapters. We now include separate sections on Jewish English and Asian 
American English to complement our coverage of African American English, Latino 
English, Cajun English, and Native American Indian English. The chapter on stylistic 
variation outlines the exciting new turns which the study of variation in the speech of 
individual speakers has taken since the publication of the second edition, including a 
sharpened focus on how individuals use language variation to shape themselves, their 
interactions, and their social worlds.
We have also continued to adapt our style of presentation for an audience that includes 
the full range of the students who enroll in a “course on dialects.” This extends from the 
curious student with no background at all in linguistics, students in allied disciplines 
who seek information about language diversity, and the student who may wish to special-
ize in sociolinguistics or the study of American English. For example, we now use a 
standard set of “keywords” (Wells 1982) to refer to vowel productions rather than the 
International Phonetic Alphabet for clarity of presentation in discussing the ever‐ 
shifting pronunciations and pronunciation patterns that are characteristic of American 
English dialects. Keywords appear in small caps. When we do use traditional IPA symbols, 
they are surrounded by 
phonetic
brackets
brackets [ ] when they refer to particular 
productions of sounds. They are surrounded by 
phonemic
slashes
// when they refer 
to phonemes, or units of meaning. For example, the vowel sound in words like 
nice
and 
time
, the 
price
vowel, is represented by the phonemic symbol /
ɑ
i/, but may be produced 
differently in different dialects, for example, as an elongated 
lot
vowel [
ɑ
] in Southern 
dialects, or almost like an [
ɔ
i] sound in the dialect of Ocracoke, North Carolina. In the 
text, small caps are also used in the first mention of a technical term that can be found in 
Preface

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xiv
Preface
the glossary. The glossary also includes some additional terms that readers might 
encounter in their reading about American English and language variation. In addition, 
we have constructed a useful website where readers can find illustrative audio and video 
clips, and answers to exercises. The clips allow readers to experience language and dia-
lect rather than imagine it. The appendix of linguistic structures and the glossary are 
also located on the website, as well as in the book. Readers can access the website through 
a QR code on their smart phone or any device with a QR reader and then navigate to the 
audio/video vignettes and other material on the website.
Readers will notice that two emergent sociolinguists have been added as collaborators 
on this book: Caroline Myrick and Joel Schneier. They were primarily responsible for 
compiling the audio and video vignettes, assembling the answer keys, and revising the 
glossary and references; in addition, they provided invaluable assistance with just about 
everything else. They read and commented on the entire text, created new figures when 
needed, and proactively did what was necessary to complete the manuscript with a gen-
erous, supportive spirit. Perhaps most importantly, they added the perspective of the 
current, or “early‐career,” generation of sociolinguists. We think that the text profits 
from the authentic collaboration of three generations of sociolinguists who view language 
variation and American English in somewhat different but complementary ways.
Given the diverse backgrounds and interests of students who end up in a course on 
dialects, as well as the fact that the book is also used by established scholars around the 
world as a valuable source of information on American English, the challenge is to fash-
ion a text that can meet the needs of a varied audience without oversimplifying the full 
complexity of language variation study or of the theoretical, empirical, and technological 
advances that have been made in the study of language variation over the past couple of 
decades. Such a text should combine an informed approach to the nature of dialect varia-
tion, descriptive detail about particular varieties, clear explication of a range of theoretical 
views, and a discussion of the broader cultural, political, and educational implications of 
language diversity in English. We integrate research from our current studies on regional 
and sociocultural varieties, as well as our ongoing investigation of stylistic variation 
across a range of varieties to balance and personalize the study of American English.
From our perspective, underlying principles of language variation are much more 
significant than their formal representation. There are, however, times when technical 
terms are needed to convey important constructs in the field. To help readers in this 
regard, the glossary of terms should be helpful. Students also should be aided by exercises 
that are incorporated into the text at relevant points in the discussion rather than at the 
conclusions of chapters. Answers to the exercises are available on the website, and the 
glossary is also available there in a searchable format as well as in the text. The text 
should be appropriate for both upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in a 
variety of fields. At the same time, we recognize the book’s utility as a reference work on 
American English for established scholars, and we hope that our concise encapsulation 
of developments in and the current state of the art in each topic area will continue to 
prove useful to students and professional researchers in this regard.

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