This book represents a synchronic sociolinguistic analysis of gender-related variation in the speech of English and Romanian adolescents. It is motivated by the belief that variation is a characteristic of natural language, and that a comprehensive understanding of language must include a grasp of the nature and function of variation. The book analyses sociolinguistic features of adolescent speech that occur in natural, spontaneous, everyday speech, thus representing a major contribution to the study of language in its social context.