The Handbook of Language Variation and Change (Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics)

The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, written by a distinguished international roster of contributors, reflects the vitality and growth of the discipline in its multifaceted pursuits. It is a convenient, hand-held repository of the essential knowledge about the study of language variation and change.

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• Written by internationally recognized experts in the field.
  
• Reflects the vitality and growth of the discipline.
  
• Discusses the ideas that drive the field and is illustrated with empirical studies.
  
• Includes explanatory introductions which set out the boundaries of the field and place each of the chapters into perspective.

J. K. Chambers is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Sociolinguistic Theory: Language Variation and its Social Significance (1995), and co-author, with Peter Trudgill, of Dialectology (second edition, 1998), as well as other books and scores of articles. He also works extensively as a forensic consultant and maintains a parallel vocation in jazz criticism which has included writing a prizewinning biography Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis (1998).

Peter Trudgill is Chair of English Linguistics at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He is author of Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society (1996) and Dialects of England (second edition, Blackwell 1999), and co-editor, with Laurie Bauer, of Language Myths (1999). He is editor of Blackwell's Language in Society series.

Natalie Schilling-Estes is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University. She is co-author of Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue (1997) and American English (Blackwell 1998), both with Walt Wolfram.