A call for more diverse sources of data: Variationist approaches in non‐English contexts

Over the past 50 years, variationist sociolinguists have taken the influential ideas and pioneering methods of Labov ( ) to many locations around the world. But the majority of variationist research still focuses on English and other European languages, rather than lesser‐studied language communities. Like other subfields of linguistics, the variationist paradigm needs to continually explore new data from a range of languages. The present article examines how the principles and methods of Labov ( ) have been applied to non‐English language communities, testing the impact and relevance of those half‐century‐old notions in new and sociolinguistically diverse settings, and calling for more research in new field sites.