Written by teachers with first-hand experience of sociolinguistic developments on four continents, this textbook has introduced thousands of students worldwide to the central topics in sociolinguistics. Now fully updated to reflect the new debates, approaches, and findings within the field, this is the perfect resource for those taking introductory courses in Sociolinguistics, Language and Society, Identity and Power and Language Variation and Change. The book covers multilingualism, code-choice, language variation, dialectology, interactional studies, gender, language contact, language and inequality, and language and power. Brand new additions include: an innovative new chapter exploring globalisation and language, a new chapter on writing and multimodality and new sections exploring areas such as migration, gender and identity, the sociolinguistics of writing, new modes of communication and youth languages.

The international team behind this new edition draws deeply on global scholarship. The book delivers exceptional technical and theoretical training with vivid and diverse data. It reflects the true breadth of the field — spanning classic and new media, cultures, and insights in a fast-changing world. -- Devyani Sharma, University of Oxford

Rajend Mesthrie is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Senior Research Scholar at the University of Cape Town. He was Head of the Linguistics Section (1998 – 2009), and holder of an NRF research chair in migration, language, and social change. He was President of the Linguistics Society of Southern Africa (2002-2009) and President of the International Congress of Linguists (2013-2018). He is an elected honorary life member of SALALS (South African Linguistic and Applied Linguistics Society) and the LSA (Linguistic Society of America). He is a past co-editor of English Today (2008-2012). Amongst his book publications are Language in Indenture: a Sociolinguistic history of Bhojpuri-Hindi in South Africa (1992, reprinted. 2019), Introducing Sociolinguistics (with Swann, Deumert & Leap, Edinburgh University Press 2009), Language in South Africa (ed., 2002) and Youth Language Practices & Urban Language Contact in Africa (ed., with Hurst-Harosh & Brookes, 2021). Joan Swann is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication in the School of Education at the Open University, UK. William Leap is Professor of Anthropology at the American University, Washington DC.