Explore William Labov's groundbreaking 1966 study on the social stratification of English in New York City in this 27-minute lecture by Dr. Om Prakash from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Gautam Buddha University. Delve into Labov's pioneering sociolinguistic research that revealed how language variation correlates with social class in urban settings, focusing on the pronunciation of /r/ in New York City speech. Gain insights into Labov's innovative methodology, including his famous department store study, and understand how this seminal work laid the foundation for modern sociolinguistics and our understanding of language change in progress.