The editors of this volume have brought together an excellent collection of original essays that discuss issues of importance in the accounting of language patterns in American English and, in particular, in the definition of the “Midland” as a dialect area. As Simon states in an introductory piece, “The scrutiny given Midland dialect here raises fundamental issues regarding the basic notion of dialect and, consequently, how we theorize patterns of language variation” (p. xi). The essays present the results of empirical work using modern methodologies that incorporate statistical, archival, ethnographic, and textual investigations. These studies provide a fairly comprehensive picture of the Midland and its speakers, but they go beyond this to provide insight into the dynamics of language change and geosocial patterns .

The volume opens with an introductory section including two pieces by the editors. The first, Simon's “Introducing the Midland: What is it, where is it, how do we know?,” examines some of the challenges that linguists face in the effort to define regionality and the Midland region, and portrays the volume as “a companion to Timothy Frazer's (1993) ‘Heartland’ English.” The second, “What is dialect? Revisiting the Midland,” by Murray & Simon, discusses the controversy surrounding the existence of the Midland English dialect. The editors firmly conclude, in agreement with Kurath 1949 “that Midland dialect does, in fact, exist” (2). To support this statement, they offer a list of 17 grammatical items that “define and validate a Midland variety of American English” (15). Their claim is not that these features occur exclusively in the Midland nor that everyone in the Midland uses them, but that it is the particular combination and frequency of the 17 items that are evidence of a Midland grammar.

The remaining essays, all valuable and interesting to read, and including plenty of maps, tables, and figures to illustrate the findings, are organized into three parts. Part I, “The evolving Midland,” includes three papers. Leading off is Sharon Ash's “The North American Midland as a dialect area,” which presents lexical, syntactic and phonological data that show the coherence of the geographic core of the Midland and the less similar features in the geographically peripheral areas. The two other essays focus on variation in the vowels of Midland English: “Tracking the low back merger in Missouri,” by Matthew Gordon, and “Evidence from Ohio on the evolution of /æ/,” by Eric Thomas.

Part II, “Defining the Midland,” comprises essays by Edward Callary on the use of geographic names in dialect geography, Thomas Donahue on the dialects of Youngstown, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kirk Hazen on West Virginia Appalachian language features, and Michael Montgomery on “alternative one.”

Part III, “Power and perception,” contains contributions by Richard W. Bailey, Timothy Frazer, and Cynthia Bernstein, focusing mainly on attitudes about Heartland (Midland) English, and an article by Betsy E. Evans, Rika Ito, Jamila Jones, & Dennis R. Preston on accommodation to the Northern Cities Chain Shift.

Part IV, “Other languages, other places,” includes four essays. Two of these focus on other languages: Ellen Johnson & David Boyle discusss the increase of Spanish speakers in Dalton, Georgia, resulting from Latino immigration; Steve Hartman Keiser deals with the spread of Deitsch (Pennsylvania German) to the Midwest. Chad Thompson examines some features of the English of the Swiss Amish in Indiana. Mike Linn & Ronald Regal apply statistics to data from the Linguistic Atlas of the Upper Midwest to see if Northern and Midland dialects are significantly different. They find that differences exist with respect to lexical forms, but that different grammatical forms correlate with social group and sex rather than with region.

The volume closes with an extensive list of references and a comprehensive index. The editors have put together a well-rounded book with well-written articles that make an important contribution to our understanding of American English. Applied linguists, sociolinguists, dialectologists, and all those interested in language variation and change will find it useful, interesting, and relevant.