Studying language variation requires comprehensive interdisciplinary knowledge and new computational tools. This essential reference introduces researchers and graduate students in computer science, linguistics, and NLP to the core topics in language variation and the computational methods applied to similar languages, varieties, and dialects.

"Language resources and computational models are becoming increasingly important for the study of language variation. A main challenge of this interdisciplinary field is that linguistics researchers may not be familiar with these helpful computational tools and many NLP researchers are often not familiar with language variation phenomena. This essential reference introduces researchers to the necessary computational models for processing similar languages, varieties, and dialects. In this book, leading experts tackle the inherent challenges of the field by balancing a thorough discussion of the theoretical background with a meaningful overview of state-of-the-art language technology. The book can be used in a graduate course, or as a supplementary text for courses on language variation, dialectology, and sociolinguistics or on computational linguistics and NLP"--

Traditional dialects have been encroached upon by the increasing mobility of their speakers and by the onslaught of national languages in education and mass media. Typically, older dialects are “leveling” to become more like national languages. This is regrettable when the last articulate traces of a culture are lost, but it also promotes a complex dynamics of interaction as speakers shift from dialect to standard and to intermediate compromises between the two in their forms of speech. Varieties of speech thus live on in modern communities, where they still function to mark provenance, but increasingly cultural and social provenance as opposed to pure geography. They arise at times from the need to function throughout the different groups in society, but they also may have roots in immigrants’ speech, and just as certainly from the ineluctable dynamics of groups wishing to express their identity to themselves and to the world. The future of dialects is a selection of the papers presented at Methods in Dialectology XV, held in Groningen, the Netherlands, 11-15 August 2014. While the focus is on methodology, the volume also includes specialized studies on varieties of Catalan, Breton, Croatian, (Belgian) Dutch, English (in the US, the UK and in Japan), German (including Swiss German), Italian (including Tyrolean Italian), Japanese, and Spanish as well as on heritage languages in Canada.

Thoroughly updated and revised, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 7th Edition presents a comprehensive and fully updated introduction to the study of the relationship between language and society. Building on Ronald Wardhaugh’s classic text, co-author Janet Fuller has updated this seventh edition throughout with new discussions exploring language and communities, language and interaction, and sociolinguistic variation, as well as incorporating numerous new exercises and research ideas for today’s students. Taking account of new research from the field, the book explores exciting new perspectives drawn from linguistic anthropology, and includes new chapters on pragmatics, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics and education. With an emphasis on using examples from languages and cultures around the world, chapters address topics including social and regional dialects, multilingualism, discourse and pragmatics, variation, language in education, and language policy and planning. A new companion website including a wealth of additional online material, as well as a glossary and a variety of new exercises and examples, helps further illuminate the ideas presented in the text. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 7th Edition continues to be the most indispensable and accessible introduction to the field of sociolinguistics for students in applied and theoretical linguistics, education, and anthropology.

Originally published in 1978. This book provides and explains a framework for understanding and describing variations of style of language in relation to the social context in which it is used. Constant features of language users, such as their temporal, geographical. and social origins, their range of intelligibility, and their individualities, are related to concepts of dialects, but dialects are not the only kind of language variety. There are features of language situations that yield others; the medium used, the roles of the users and their relationships, as well as recurring situations and cultural habits, all relate to the style employed. Variety in language can be seen in terms of the major functions of language, as 'content' as 'inter-action' and as 'texture'. Studying variety in language from sociological and linguistic aspects this book is also interesting for psycholinguistics and literary study.

Languages and Dialects in the U.S. is a concise introduction to linguistic diversity in the U.S. for students with little to no background in linguistics. The goal of the editors of this collection of fourteen chapters, written by leading experts on the language varieties discussed, is to offer students detailed insight into the languages they speak or hear around them, grounded in comprehensive coverage of the linguistic systems underpinning them. The book begins with "setting the stage" chapters, introducing the sociocultural context of the languages and dialects featured in the book. The remaining chapters are each devoted to particular U.S. dialects and varieties of American English, each with problem sets and suggested further readings to reinforce basic concepts and new linguistic terminology and to encourage further study of the languages and dialects covered. By presenting students with both the linguistic and social, cultural, and political foundations of these particular dialects and variations of English, Languages and Dialects in the U.S. is the ideal text for students interested in linguistic diversity in the U.S., in introductory courses in sociolinguistics, language and culture, and language variation and change.