Abstract
<jats:p>Social factors are central to diachronic change in language, both in terms of why certain groups adopt change and how certain changes might spread. Understanding the durable problems connecting social variation to diachronic change requires tracking the evolution of investigations into the social correlates of language variation and change, from foundation to the present day. The main social groupings reviewed here are class, gender, and race/ethnicity, all of which have been important social differentiators since the foundation of variationist sociolinguistics. The emphasis is on landmark papers in the field: their datasets, their claims, and the consequences they continue to have for present‐day theorization of diachronic language change. Correlations between social class and language variation and change begin with Labov's foundational work in New York City and subsequent community‐level studies. Work on social class gradually narrows in focus, moving to localized practices, then to individual performances of identity. Gender also began with discussions of community‐level patterning, especially the relationship between men and women in the process of change. More current work in gender includes a wider range of identities, as well as discussing the relationship between gender and sexuality, and it emphasizes the performative nature of gender. Race and ethnicity often connect to language contact and heritage languages, which leave their mark on eventual ethnolects. The most current strains of thought in this tradition emphasize the stylistic dynamism of the individual in constructing ethnic identity or the role of power in the construction of racialized linguistic varieties. All three of these bodies of literature highlight the importance for understanding existing social inequalities and the role they play in conditioning language change.</jats:p>