1982. Socio-historical Linguistics. Its Status and Methodology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1984. The Language of Children and Adolescents. The acquisition of communicative competence. Oxford: Blackwell.
[translated into Italian in 1987, published by Armando Editori, Rome].

1988. Pidgin and Creole Languages. London: Longman.

1989. Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell. [second revised edition 1995]
[nominated for the British Association of Applied Linguistics Book of the Year]

1992. Language, Education and Development. Urban and Rural Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

1994. Language in Society. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [2nd revised edition 2000]
---translations to date include:

---1996. El lenguaje en la sociedad. Una introducción a la sociolingüística. Barcelona: Editorial Ariel, S.A. [Spanish translation by Julio Borrego Nieto].
---1997. Tokyo: Sanseido. [Japanese translation by Shigeru Tsuchida and Rumi Takahashi].

1999. Communicating Gender. Mahwah,NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

2000. Vanishing Voices. The Extinction of the World's Languages. New York: Oxford University Press. [jointly with Daniel Nettle]. Winner of the British Association of Applied Linguistics Book of the Year Prize 2001.
---translations to date include:
---2001. Voci del Silenzio. Sulle tracce delle lingue in via di estinzione. Roma: Carocci editore. [Traduzione dall'inglese di Federico  Laudisa].
---2001. Japanese translation. Tokyo:Shinoyosha, Ltd.
---2002. Kaybolan Sesler. Dünya Dillerinin Yok Oluş Süreci. Istanbul. [Turkish translation by Harun Özgür Turgan].
---2003. Ces langues, ces voix qui s'effacent. Menaces sur les langues du monde. Paris: Editions Autrement. [Traduit de l'anglais par Marion Guilbault].
---2004. Veus que s'apaguen. La mort de les llengües del món. Girona: Universitat de Girona (Institut de Llengua i Cultura Catalanes). [trad. de Josep Cortadellas i Joan Ferrer].
---2004. Uitstervende talen. Amsterdam/Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Atlas. [Vertaald door Peter Diderich].

2014. Linguistic Diversity in High Biodiversity Regions. Arlington, VA: Conservation International. [jointly with L.J. Gorenflo, Sara Musinsky, Mark Denil and Russell A. Mittermeier]