New York City English is one of the most recognizable of US dialects and research on it
launched modern sociolinguistics. Yet the city's speech has never before received a
comprehensive description and analysis. In this book Michael Newman examines the differences
and similarities among the ways English is spoken by the extraordinarily diverse population
living in the NY 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. All levels of language are explored including
phonology morphosyntax lexicon and discourse along with a history of English in the region.
But this book provides far more than a dialectological and historical inventory of linguistic
features. The forms used by different groups of New Yorkers are discussed in terms of their
complex social meanings. Furthermore Newman illustrates the varied forms of sociolinguistic
significance with examples from the personal experiences of a variety of New Yorkers and
includes 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.
