Preface

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 discussion 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 specialize 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 /?i/, but may be produced differently in different dialects, for example, as an elongated lot vowel [?] in Southern dialects, or almost like an [?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 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 dialect 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 generous, 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 fashion 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 variation, 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.

Conceptually, the text is divided into four major sections. The first three chapters introduce students to basic notions about the nature of dialectal variation. The next chapter, Chapter 4, gives an overview of the history and development of American English dialects. Chapters 5 through 9 offer a descriptive account of some of the major social factors that relate to variation in American English, including region, social status, ethnicity, and gender. In Chapter 10, we discuss how language variation is used - and shaped - by individuals in interaction, since after all, it is in everyday interactions that larger, enduring patterns of variation, and their social meanings, are forged. We have tried to balance approaches from traditional dialectology with advances in the quantitative study of language variation while minimizing detailed discussion of the technicalities associated with current methods of analysis. The final section, chapters 11 and 12, considers the applications of dialect study beyond its scientific value - and its inherent interest to scholars and non-scholars alike as a fascinating area of inquiry. We focus on dialects and education but also discuss a variety of ways in which researchers can work collaboratively with communities from which they gather data for dialect study.

An updated summary of many of the grammatical and phonological structures that serve to distinguish various social and regional dialects from one another is included in an appendix to the book and in searchable online format on the companion website.

We are particularly grateful to our village of colleagues who provided invaluable insight into and feedback on topic areas covered in the text. These include North Carolina State University colleagues Agnes Bolonyai, Robin Dodsworth, Jeff Mielke, Jeffrey Reaser, and Erik R. Thomas, and Georgetown University colleagues Deborah Tannen, Jennifer Scalfani, Minnie Quartey Annan, Patrick Callier, Caitlin Elizondo, Sakiko Kajino, Jinsok Lee, Sinae Lee, and Anastasia Nylund. We would also like to thank our colleagues Kellam Barta, Kara Becker, Sara Bunin Benor, Phillip Carter, Katie Carmichael, Elaine Chun, May Chung, Carmen Fought, Jon Forrest, Michael Fox, Norma Mendoza-Denton, Angela Reyes, and Tracey Weldon for providing input on some of the new sections on language and ethnicity and ethnolinguistic repertoire, as well as Allan Bell for his inspiration and insight in revising the chapter on stylistic variation. Reviewers' comments were invaluable during the process of writing this new edition, even when we haven't shown enough sense to follow their advice. We also are indebted to those who guided us in other ways along our sociolinguistic path, from the first author's initial teacher in linguistics as an undergraduate student, Roger W. Shuy, to our current classes of students at North Carolina State University and Georgetown University. We have been fortunate enough to associate with a group of people who have taught us that professional colleagues can also be good friends: Carolyn Adger, Bridget Anderson, John Baugh, Robert Bayley, Allan Bell, Renee Blake, Charles Boberg, Erin Callahan-Price, Jack...