In this course the goals, methods, and findings of perceptual dialectology are summarized and evaluated, with special regard to the following:
 
1) Where do people believe speech differs?
2) How do folk boundaries differ from professional ones?
3) How do people believe speech differs? 
4) Which signals do people use to identify varieties?
5) Which variant facts influence comprehension?
6) What social factors accompany/influence any of this?
 
I will examine the methodologies, ranging from early map oriented work, through matched guise and other language attitude research models, to experimentally grounded procedures and increasingly sophisticated protocols. I will summarize the results from each and provide comparisons between them, as well as evaluations of their contributions to dialectology, sociolinguistics, and general linguistics. I will conclude by asking participants to cooperate in constructing a list of expectations for future research and to outline a plan for their own work.