This book provides an accessible yet comprehensive introduction to the study of the dialects of English as they are spoken around the world, from the earliest dialect dictionaries of the sixteenth century to contemporary research emerging from the field of geolinguistics. Organised into ten thematic chapters, it explores and evaluates the methods and purposes of each approach to the study of dialectal variation, with full explanations of technical terms throughout. Illuminating one of the most productive fields of interest in language study, this compelling book is essential reading for students of dialect and regional difference in English.

This book provides an accessible yet comprehensive introduction to the study of the dialects of English as they are spoken around the world, from the earliest dialect dictionaries of the sixteenth century to contemporary research emerging from the field of geolinguistics. Organised into ten thematic chapters, it explores and evaluates the methods and purposes of each approach to the study of dialectal variation, with full explanations of technical terms throughout. Illuminating one of the most productive fields of interest in language study, this compelling book is essential reading for students of dialect and regional difference in English.

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.

KAT LOMB (1909-2003) was one of the great polyglots of the 20th century. A translator and one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world, Lomb worked in 16 languages for state and business concerns in her native Hungary. She achieved further fame by writing books on languages, interpreting, and polyglots. Polyglot: How I Learn Languages, first published in 1970, is a collection of anecdotes and reflections on language learning. Because Dr. Lomb learned her languages as an adult, after getting a PhD in chemistry, the methods she used will be of particular interest to adult learners who want to master a foreign language.

As a comprehensive account of all aspects of dialectology this updated edition makes an ideal introduction to the subject.

Studying Language introduces key ideas about how English functions within its social and cultural contexts. It explores core topics of study such as language variation, pragmatics, stylistics and critical discourse analysis. Case studies provide worked analysis of sample texts, suggestions for further study and a further reading section.

Much theorizing in language change research is made without taking into account dialect data. Yet, dialects seem to be superior data to build a theory of linguistic change on, since dialects are relatively free of standardization and therefore more tolerant of variant competition in grammar. In addition, as compared to most cross-linguistic and diachronic data, dialect data are unusually high in resolution. This book shows that the study of dialect variation has indeed the potential, perhaps even the duty, to play a central role in the process of finding answers to fundamental questions of theoretical historical linguistics. It includes contributions which relate a clearly formulated theoretical question of historical linguistic interest with a well-defined, solid empirical base. The volume discusses phenomena from different domains of grammar (phonology, morphology and syntax) and a wide variety of languages and language varieties in the light of several current theoretical frameworks.