Miriam Meyerhoff is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her work investigates language variation and the interplay between language and social identities, using qualitative and quantitative methods. She is author of Introducing Sociolinguistics, and co-editor of the Handbook of Language and Gender, as well as Social Lives in Language and the Creole Language Library.

Erik Schleef is Lecturer in English Sociolinguistics in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests include language variation and change, language and gender and language acquisition in immigrant contexts. He has lived and taught in the US, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland.

List of figures List of tables User's Guide to The Routledge Sociolinguistics Reader Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Sociolinguistic Methods For Data Collection and Interpretation Part One: Identities, Style and Politeness Editors' Introduction to Part One 2. Back In Style: Reworking Audience Design. Allan Bell 3. Oprah and /Ay/: Lexical Frequency, Referee Design and Style. Jennifer Hay, Stefanie Jannedy and Norma Mendoza-Denton 4. A Chinese Yuppie in Beijing: Phonological Variation and The Construction of A New Professional Identity. Qing Zhang 5. Linguistic Routines and Politeness in Greeting and Parting. John Laver 6. Formal Forms and Discernment: Two Neglected Aspects of Universals of Linguistic Politeness. Sachiko Ide Part Two: Perceptions and Language Attitudes Editors' Introduction to Part Two 7. Language With An Attitude. Dennis R. Preston 8. The Li'l Abner Syndrome: Written Representation of Speech. Dennis R. Preston 9. Perceptual and Phonetic Experiments on American English Dialect Identification. Thomas Purnell, William Idsardi, and John Baugh 10. Language Education Policy and the Medium of Instruction Issue in Post-Colonial Africa. Gibson Ferguson 11. Social Stereotypes, Personality Traits and Regional Perceptions Displaced: Attitudes Towards The 'New' Quotatives In The U.K. Isabelle Buchstaller Part Three: Multilingualism and Language Contact Editors' Introduction to Part Three 12. Bilingualism in Paraguay: Forty Years After Rubin's Study. Jinny K. Choi 13. Code Switching In Gapun: Social and Linguistic Aspects of Language Use In A Language Shifting Community. Don Kulick and Christopher Stroud 14. Social Meaning in Linguistic Structure: Code-Switching In Norway. Jan Peter Blom and John J. Gumperz 15. Dialect Contact, Focusing and Phonological Rule Complexity: The Koineisation of Fenland English. David Britain 16. Legitimate Language in a Multilingual School. Monica Heller 17. Language Crossing and The Redefinition of Reality. Ben Rampton 16. The Globalisation of Vernacular Variation. Miriam Meyerhoff and Nancy Niedzielski Part Four: Variation and Change Editors' Introduction to Part Four 19. The Social Motivation Of A Sound Change. William Labov 20. Well Weird, Right Dodgy, Very Strange, Really Cool: Layering and Recycling in English Intensifiers. Rika Ito and Sali Tagliamonte 21. Language Change Across The Lifespan. Gillian Sankoff and Helene Blondeau 22. Norwich Revisited: Recent Linguistic Changes In An English Urban District. Peter Trudgill 23. Aging and Gendering. Richard Cameron Part Five: Social Class, Networks and Communities of Practice Editors' Introduction To Part Five 24. Social Network and Social Class: Toward An Integrated Sociolinguistic Model. Lesley Milroy and James Milroy 25. Mobility Versus Social Class In Dialect Levelling: Evidence From New and Old Towns in England. Paul Kerswill and Ann Williams 26. Making The Best Of 'Bad' Data: Evidence for Sociolinguistic Variation in Early Modern English. Terttu Nevalainen 27. Vowels and Nail Polish: The Emergence of Linguistic Style In The Preadolescent Heterosexual Marketplace. Penelope Eckert 28. 'Doing Femininity' At Work: More Than Just Relational Practice. Janet Holmes and Stephanie Schnurr Part Six: Gender Editors' Introduction To Part Six 29. A Linguistic Innovation of Women in Cairo. Niloofar Haeri 30. Indexing Gender. Elinor Ochs 31. Power and the Language of Men. Scott Fabius Kiesling 32. Markedness and Styleswitching in Performances By African American Drag Queens. Rusty Barrett Notes on Concept Questions Index