Juan Manuel Hernández-Campoy is Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Murcia, Spain, where he teaches undergraduate courses on English Sociolinguistics, Dialectology, and the History of English, as well as sociolinguistic research methods for postgraduate students. His books include Style-Shifting in Public (with J.A. Cutillas-Espinosa, 2012), Diccionario de Sociolingüística (with P. Trudgill, 2007), Metodología de la Investigación Sociolingüística (with M. Almeida, 2005), and Geolingüística (1999). Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre is Professor in English Historical Linguistics at the University of Murcia, Spain, where he teaches on the History of the English Language and Research Methods in Language Variation and Change. His books include Sociolinguistica Histórica (2007), Sociolinguistics and the History of English (with J.M. Hernández-Campoy, 2005) and Variation and Linguistic Change in English (with J.M. Hernández-Campoy, 1999).

• Plates xFigures xMaps xiiTables xiiiNotes on Contributors xvPreface xxviiTeresa FanegoIntroduction 1J. Camilo Conde-Silvestre & Juan M. Hernández-CampoyPart I Origins and Theoretical Assumptions 91 Diachrony vs Synchrony: the Complementary Evolution of Two (Ir)reconcilable Dimensions 11Jean Aitchison2 Historical Sociolinguistics: Origins, Motivations, and Paradigms 22Terttu Nevalainen and Helena Raumolin-Brunberg3 Social History and the Sociology of Language 41Robert McColl MillarPart II Methods for the Sociolinguistic Study of the History of Languages 614 The Application of the Quantitative Paradigm to Historical Sociolinguistics: Problems with the Generalizability Principle 63Juan M. Hernández-Campoy and Natalie Schilling5 The Uniformitarian Principle and the Risk of Anachronisms in Language and Social History 80Alexander Bergs6 The Use of Linguistic Corpora for the Study of Linguistic Variation and Change: Types and Computational Applications 99Pascual Cantos7 Editing the Medieval Manuscript in its Social Context 123Nila Vázquez and Teresa Marqués-Aguado8 Medical, Official, and Monastic Documents in Sociolinguistic Research 140Laura Esteban-Segura9 The Use of Private Letters and Diaries in Sociolinguistic Investigation 156Stephan Elspass10 The Use of Literary Sources in Historical Sociolinguistic Research 170K. Anipa11 Early Advertising and Newspapers as Sources of Sociolinguistic Investigation 191Carol PercyPart III Linguistic and Socio-demographic Variables 21112 Orthographic Variables 213Hanna Rutkowska and Paul Rössler13 Phonological Variables 237Anna Hebda14 Grammatical Variables 253Anita Auer and Anja Voeste15 Lexical-Semantic Variables 271Joachim Grzega16 Pragmatic Variables 293Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen17 Class, Age, and Gender-based Patterns 307Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak18 The Role of Social Networks and Mobility in Diachronic Sociolinguistics 332Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre19 Race, Ethnicity, Religion, and Castes 353Rajend MesthriePart IV Historical Dialectology, Language Contact, Change, and Diffusion 36720 The Teleology of Change: Functional and Non-Functional Explanations for Language Variation and Change 369Paul T. Roberge21 Internally- and Externally-Motivated Language Change 387Raymond Hickey22 Lexical Diffusion and the Regular Transmission of Language Change in its Sociohistorical Context 408Brian D. Joseph23 The Timing of Language Change 427Mieko Ogura24 Innovation Diffusion in Sociohistorical Linguistics 451David Britain25 Historical Dialectology: Space as a Variable in the Reconstruction of Regional Dialects 465Anneli Meurman-Solin26 Linguistic Atlases: Empirical Evidence for Dialect Change in the History of Languages 480Roland Kehrein27 Historical Sociolinguistic Reconstruction Beyond Europe: Case Studies from South Asia and Fiji 501Matthew Toulmin28 Multilingualism, Code-switching, and Language Contact in Historical Sociolinguistics 520Herbert Schendl29 The Impact of Migratory Movements on Linguistic Systems: Transplanted Speech Communities and Varieties from a Historical Sociolinguistic Perspective 534Daniel Schreier30 Convergence and Divergence in World Languages 552Roger WrightPart V Attitudes to Language 56931 Sociolinguistics and Ideologies in Language History 571James Milroy32 Language Myths 585Richard J. Watts33 Linguistic Purism 607Nils Langer and Agnete Nesse34 The Reconstruction of Prestige Patterns in Language History 626Anni Sairio and Minna Palander-Collin35 Written Vernaculars in Medieval and Renaissance Times 639Catharina PeersmanIndex 655

“Taken as a whole, The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics offers the reader an incomparable source of state-of-the-art papers in the field, most of which were written exclusively for the present edition. I am sure it will become a required text for those delving into the discipline.”  (Journal of Sociolinguistics, 1 October 2014)“In this respect, the Handbook represents both an excellent summary of the state of the art in historical sociolinguistics and a good starting point for further research.”  (Linguistlist, 1 April 2013)