This is a unified collection of the best and most current empirical studies of socio-linguistic issues in the deaf community, including topics such as studies of sign language variation, language contact and change, and sign language policy. Established linguistic concerns with deaf language are reexamined and redefined, and several new issues of general importance to all sociolinguists are raised and explored. This is a book which interests all sociolinguists as well as deaf professionals, teachers of the deaf, sign language interpreters, and anyone else dealing on a day-to-day basis with the everyday language choices that deaf persons must make.