Dialects Converging: Rural Speech in Urban Norway

How and why do adults modify their language when they move to a new area? In this detailed study of rural dialect users who have moved to the Norwegian city of Bergen, Kerswill throws light on this widespread phenomenon. The book is concerned with the theory of language change through language and dialect contact, and with the theory and practice of sociolinguistics. While the approach is broadly quantitative, the author shows the importance of ethnographic and social-psychological explanations.