This book develops the general principles of linguistic change that form the foundations of historical linguistics, dialectology and sociolinguistics. It is concerned with the factors that govern the internal development of linguistic structures: the mechanisms of change, the constraints on change, and the ways in which change is embedded in the larger linguistic system.

While it is generally believed that linguistic change is a product of earlier times, and that local dialects are disappearing, this work shows that rapid change is in progress in the cities of America and England, so that urban dialects are becoming more and more differentiated. Instrumental studies of these changes develop a new view of phonological space which allows the resolution of long-standing paradoxes of historical linguistics. The book then develops the general principles governing mergers and splits, which alter linguistic structure.

"This volume represents the remarkable achievements of one of the leading linguistics of the twentieth century. Almost uniquely... Labov has demonstrated the social as well as cognitive relevance of linguistic research." Elizabeth C. Traugott and Scott A. Schwenter, Stanford University

This book develops the general principles of linguistic change that form the foundations of historical linguistics, dialectology and sociolinguistics. It is concerned with the factors that govern the internal development of linguistic structures: the mechanisms of change, the constraints on change, and the ways in which change is embedded in the larger linguistic system.

William Labovis Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Editor's Preface.

Notational Conventions.

Acknowledgements.

Introduction: The Plan of the Work as a Whole.

Part I: Introduction and Methodology:.

1. The Use of the Present to Explain the Past.

2. An Overview of the Issues.

3. The Study of Change in Progress: Observations in Apparent Time.

4. The Study of Change in Progress: Observations in Real Time.

Part II: Chain Shifting:.

5. General Principles of Vowel Shifting.

6. Chain Shifts in Progress.

7. Resolution of the Paradoxes.

8. Reduction of the Rules and Principles.

9. Chain Shifts across Subsystems.

Part III: Mergers and Splits:.

10. Some Impossible Unmergings.

11. The General Properties of Mergers and Splits.

12. Near-Mergers.

13. The Explanation of Unmergings.

14. The Suspension of Phonemic Contrast.

Part IV: The Regularity Controversy:.

15. Evidence for Lexical Diffusion.

16. Expanding the Neogrammarian Viewpoint.

17. Regular Sound Change in English Dialect Geography.

18. A Proposed Resolution of the Regularity Question.

Part V: The Functional Character of Change:.

19. The Overestimation of Functionalism.

20. The Maintenance of Meaning.

21. The Principles Reviewed.

References.

Index.