This collection of papers examines how sign languages are distributed around the world; what occurs when they come in contact with spoken and written languages, and how signers use them in a variety of situations. Each chapter introduces the key issues in a particular area of inquiry and provides a comprehensive review of the literature. The seven papers include the following: (1) "Introduction" (Ceil Lucas); (2) "Multilingualism: The Global Approach to Sign Languages" (Bencie Woll, Rachel Sutton-Spence, and Frances Elton); (3) "Bilingualism and Language Contact" (Jean Ann); (4) "Sociolinguistic Variation" (Ceil Lucas, Robert Bayley, Clayton Valli, Mary Rose, and Alyssa Wulf); (5) "Discourse Analysis" (Melanie Metzger and Ben Bahan); (6) "Language Planning and Policy" (Timothy Reagan); and (7) "Language Attitudes" (Sarah Burns, Patrick Matthews, and Evelyn Nolan-Conroy). (Contains 620 references, 14 figures, and 9 tables.) (SM)