This book provides a very readable, up-to-date description of language variation in American English, covering regional, ethnic, and gender-based differences. It contains new chapters on social and ethnic dialects, including a separate chapter on African American English and more comprehensive discussions of Latino, Native American, Cajun English, and other varieties. It includes samples from a wider array of US regions, features updated chapters as well as pedagogy such as new exercises, a phonetic symbols key, and a section on the notion of speech community.

The book is accessibly written for the wide variety of students that enroll in a course on dialects, ranging from students with no background in linguistics to those who may wish to specialize in sociolinguistics.