Michael Newman

Research on New York City English - one of the most recognizable of U.S. dialects - launched modern sociolinguistics. Yet the City's speech has never before received a comprehensive description and analysis. In this book, Newman examines the differences and similarities among the ways English is spoken by the extraordinarily diverse population living in the New York dialect region. He uses data from a variety of sources, including older dialectological accounts, classic and recent variationist studies, and original research on speakers from around the dialect region. The book goes beyond dialectological and historical inventory to examine the complex social meanings of forms used by different groups of New Yorkers. In addition, Newman illustrates the varied forms of sociolinguistic significance with examples from the personal experiences of a variety of New Yorkers, and with links to sound files on the publisher's site and videos on YouTube. The result is a rigorous but accessible and compelling account of the English spoken in this great City.