William Labov ( /ləˈboʊv/ lə-BOHV; born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist, widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics. He is employed as a professor in the linguistics department of the University of Pennsylvania, and pursues research in sociolinguistics, language change, and dialectology.
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“I shall carry to the Catacombs of Age,
Photographically lined
On the tablet of my mind,”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)