Based on Peter Trudgill’s (2003) A glossary of sociolinguistics (Edinburgh University Press), the Diccionario de sociolingüística is not simply a translation into Spanish but also an adaptation of Trudgill’s book for audiences interested in Hispanic linguistics. Relevant examples and references from Hispanic-based studies have been combined with a detailed overview of key issues in Anglophone sociolinguistics. The result is a dictionary that offers a thorough but concise compendium of sociolinguistic terminology, with entries about fundamental theoretical and methodological aspects of the discipline. The reader will find entries ranging from classical sociolinguistic concepts like prestige (pp. 253–54) or code-switching (59–60) to descriptions of more recent developments in linguistic theory such as Optimality Theory (318–20), as well as developments in practice, such as a discussion of computer software for variation analysis (338–39). The abundance of cross-references between entries additionally makes this dictionary a user-friendly source of inquiry for Hispanic sociolinguists.

Sociolinguistics has become a vast discipline. Through diverse linguistic phenomena, sociolinguistics now examines the relationship between language and the social world in many ways and contexts. Trudgill and Hernández Campoy’s dictionary reflects this variety of sociolinguistic research both by defining some important areas of study in micro- and macro-sociolinguistics, and by explaining their key relevant concepts. For those interested in micro-sociolinguistic work, the dictionary contains references to areas such as pragmatics, conversation analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis. In the realm of macro-sociolinguistics, readers will find definitions related to language planning and policy, language endangerment and loss, multilingualism, variation, and contact linguistics, to name a few areas. The dictionary also provides information about the focus of studies in some of the above-mentioned areas, such as descriptions of minority languages (e.g., Saami, 282) and creoles (e.g., Palenquero, 242, and Papiamento, 243), as well as numerous definitions of phonetic and phonological concepts.

In addition to the main body of the dictionary, with the traditional organization of terms and definitions in alphabetical order, the authors have added two sections at the end of the book. The first is a useful English-Spanish glossary of linguistic and sociolinguistic terms. Not only does the glossary provide quick access to translations when needed, but it also greatly facilitates navigating the dictionary if the reader is more closely acquainted with the English terminology. The second section presents the interested reader with a bibliography that contains some fundamental works in general sociolinguistics and in Hispanic sociolinguistics today.

In sum, Trudgill & Hernández Campoy’s Diccionario de sociolingüística is a fairly broad and accessible desktop reference book for searches in Spanish. This dictionary will thus be of special interest to graduate students, instructors, and researchers of Hispanic sociolinguistics looking for information about established concepts and methodologies in the field.