Introductory Textbooks

[AAllan at AOL.COM]

Given those requests, I will shamelessly plug a book of mine:

"How We Talk: American Regional English Today" published by Houghton Mifflin in 2000, available in inexpensive paperback, and aimed at general readers but backed by reference to the expert information accumulated over the years by members of the American Dialect Society. In addition to regional American English, it also has chapters on ethnic varieties (African American, Latino, American Indian, etc) and even dialects in the movies.

- Allan Metcalf