British urban accents are undergoing rapid and extensive changes, perhaps more so now than ever before. This volume surveys the modern state of accents in Britain, looking in detail at some 15 accents from around Britain and introducing issues at the forefront of ongoing work in theoretical sociolinguistics and descriptive dialectology. Work indicates that many of these ongoing changes span wide geographical areas. A full overview of theoretical and methodological issues at the forefront of sociolinguistics is provided and, at the same time, a detailed comparative survey of variation and change in the phonology and phonetics of English is offered. Individual chapters, written by researchers carrying out key studies of major accents, focus on a single urban area and a principal academic theme.