A discussion of various topics: the relation between sociolinguistics and linguistic theory; sociolinguistics and dialectology; linguistic change and diffusion; the sociolinguistics and geolinguistics of vowel mergers; language contact and language change; language contact in Greece; the relations of language contact; language shift and identity; aspects of conflicting identity; social identity and linguistic sex differentiation; sex and covert prestige; standard and nonstandard dialects of English in the United Kingdom; and linguistic value judgments.