# Dialects & Sociolinguistics

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Category: Languages
Slides: 31
Updated: 2026-05-15T22:18:21.959Z
Tags: languages, dialects, and, sociolinguistics

## Summary

The Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich's quip — recorded by him in 1945 from an audience member at a YIVO lecture — is the field's epigram. There is no purely linguistic distinction between a language and a dialect. The distinction is political. Key sections include: Dia · lects.; Opening A language is a dialect with an army.; Chapter I Before sociolinguistics.; Chapter II William Labov.; Chapter III The linguistic variable.; Chapter IV The class stratification of speech.; Chapter V The Northern Cities Shift.; Chapter VI Peter Trudgill and the Norwich study.; Chapter VII African American Vernacular English.; Chapter VIII The history and politics of AAVE..

## Slide Outline

1. Dia · lects.
2. Opening A language is a dialect with an army.
3. Chapter I Before sociolinguistics.
4. Chapter II William Labov.
5. Chapter III The linguistic variable.
6. Chapter IV The class stratification of speech.
7. Chapter V The Northern Cities Shift.
8. Chapter VI Peter Trudgill and the Norwich study.
9. Chapter VII African American Vernacular English.
10. Chapter VIII The history and politics of AAVE.
11. Chapter IX The dialect regions of America.
12. Chapter X Britain — RP, Estuary, regional.
13. Chapter XI Style, register, and audience design.
14. Chapter XII Penelope Eckert and the high-school study.
15. Chapter XIII Code-switching.
16. Chapter XIV Identity and indexicality.
17. Chapter XV Gender and language.
18. Chapter XVI Race, ethnicity, and linguistic profiling.
19. Chapter XVII The making of standards.
20. Chapter XVIII The multilingual norm.
21. Chapter XIX Social networks and dense ties.
22. Chapter XX Language on the internet.
23. Chapter XXI How language changes.
24. Chapter XXII Schools and the dialect problem.
25. Chapter XXIII The methods.
26. Chapter XXIV Pidgins, creoles, and contact varieties.
27. Chapter XXV Language ideologies.
28. Chapter XXVI Twenty-five works.
29. Chapter XXVII Watch & read.
30. Chapter XXVIII What this field is for.
31. The end of the deck.

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