Lucas, Valli (both Gallaudet U.) and Bayley (U. of Texas, San Antonio) present materials designed to introduce members of the Deaf community and the general public to the sociolinguistic variation in American Sign Language (ASL). These materials are a part of the resulting products from a seven-year research project in which deaf ASL users from seven different areas of the U.S., ranging in age from 13 to 93, were videotaped while they chatted. The text serves as a guide to video clips contained on the accompanying CD-ROM, and explores some basic concepts about language, linguistic variation in general, and phonological, syntactic and lexical variation specifically. Three supplemental readings provide further information on variation in spoken and signed languages. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less