He laid the foundation for sociolinguistics, and he showed that structures like class and race shaped speech as much as where someone lives. By Clay Risen William Labov, whose innovative research into ...

Comedian (and Atlanta native) David Cross has a bit about how a particular accent associated with the rural south can actually be found in semi-rural areas all over the country. For lack of a better ...

And I'm Robert Siegel. P: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change. He calls it a snapshot of our rapidly changing language, mergers of sounds that used to be different, splits of sounds that used to be ...

Ever since she emerged on the national stage, Sarah Palin's accent has prompted many theories. William Labov, professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, says he's studied Palin's way ...

In the 1960s, Columbia University graduate student William Labov headed into New York City’s department stores in search of something. He scoured Saks, Macy’s, and S. Klein, asking all the employees ...

William Labov, whose innovative research into regional variations in language -- why New Yorkers drink wahtah but Philadelphians drink warter -- won him acclaim as one of the most important linguists ...

Professor William Labov, a University of Pennsylvania linguist and author of the new book Atlas of North American English Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change, says there is a shift of vowel sounds ...