ABSTRACT
Many of those recent urban sociolinguistic studies which follow the general model provided by Labov (1966) have tried to account for patterns of variability in language and have frequently looked for evidence of ongoing linguistic change. Although the study of urban language described here makes use of a number of Labov’s concepts and analytic techniques, the emphasis is not on change and variability, but rather on stability and focusing. In this respect I share with Le Page (1979) an interest in the question of how a stable set of linguistic norms emerges and maintains itself in a relatively focused form. Although this question is seen by Le Page, a creolist, to be of fundamental importance to sociolinguistic theory, it is not one which is often asked by scholars working in the urban dialectological tradition of Labov.
