Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology 2

This second volume of the Handbook is a welcome addition to the literature on folk linguistics. Its most laudable characteristics is the plethora of practical and theoretical innovations that it inserts into this burgeoning field of linguistic inquiry. The novelty of the works included in the volume cover everything from methods to analyses to theoretical reflections. These innovations considerably enrich the field. New methods focusing on content-analysis and metalinguistic discourse, for example, allow for the incorporation of discourse analysis principles in the field. New analysis including the study of imitation and dialect judgements open the field to the most recent advances in acoustic phonetics. New contexts including the investigation of communities in exile, ethnolinguistic minorities, and fractured political spaces forcefully injects sophisticated social theory into the field. Each and every one of the studies in the volume exponentially multiplies the possibilities of the field of perceptual dialectology. It is my hope that researchers will agree with this assesment, and that they will coordinate efforts in order to establish a professional organization and a periodical publication dedicated exclusively to this exciting field of linguistics. -- Glenn Martinez, University of Arizona, Tuscon, on Linguist List 14.1383, 2003