[The first half of this chapter demonstrates the practical difficulties for the linguist in dealing with inherent variation – where it is not possible at any one time to predict which of several alternatives a speaker will adopt in the stream of speech. New York City was a classic case, and the definition of five linguistic variables. The concept of the linguistic variable is probably the most influential and widely adopted aspect of the approach to linguistics the absence of it.]

It is safe to say that the language of New York City is better known to the people of the United States as a whole than the language of any other single city. The great majority of our informants report that whenever they travel outside of the city, they are quickly identified as New Yorkers. On radio and television, stereotypes of middle class and working class New York speech have traditionally been used for comic effects. For many years, several other features of working class and lower class New York City speech have been stigmatized under the label of Brooklynese. In Minnesota or Pittsburgh, the speech of lower class New Yorkers may be imitated by boys who think of this style as a symbol of the tough, hard life and defiance of authority. Indeed, some of these sound features have entered into a folk mythology.