The most comprehensive overview available, this handbook is an essential guide to sociolinguistics today.

Introduction: the sociolinguistic enterprise Rajend Mesthrie; Part I. Foundations of Sociolinguistics: 1. Power, social differentiation and language John Baugh; 2. Linguistic anthropology Alessandro Duranti; 3. Social psychology and language Peter Robinson and Abigail Locke; 4. Orality and literacy in sociolinguistics Lowry Hemphill; 5. Sign languages Ceil Lucas and Bob Bayley; Part II. Interaction, Style and Discourse: 6. Conversation and interaction Cynthia Gordon; 7. Pragmatics and discourse Jan Blommaert; 8. Style Nikolas Coupland; Part III. Social and Regional Dialectology: 9. Language, class and status Gregory Guy; 10. Language and region Bill Kretzschmar; 11. Language and place Barbara Johnstone; 12. Language, gender, sexuality Natalie Schilling; 13. Language and ethnicity Carmen Fought; Part IV. Multilingualism and Language Contact: 14. Multilingualism and multiculturalism Ana Deumert; 15. Pidgins, creoles and other contact varieties John Singler and Silvia Kouwenberg; 16. Code switching Pieter Muysken; 17. Language maintenance, shift and endangerment Nicholas Ostler; 18. Colonisation, globalisation and world Englishes Edgar Schneider; Part V. Applied Sociolinguistics: 19. Language planning and policy James Tollefson; 20. Language and the law Diana Eades; 21. Language and the media Susan McKay; 22. Language and education Christopher Stroud and Kathleen Heugh.