Before briefly reviewing the different papers published in this volume a general view of sociolinguistics — and one of its predecessors, mainly dialectology — in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay is offered. As for Argentina, special emphasis is given to research on variational analysis of symptomatic phonic variables and on the role of ethnic languages within the major Spanish-speaking Community. In regard to Paraguay the short analysis focuses on the relationships between Spanish and Guarani and its concomitant projection in the scientific literature. In the case of Uruguay attention is drawn to the specific Situation of Hispano-Luso contact on the Brazilian-Uruguayan border and the studies devoted to the topic and to the early development of general linguistics mainly through the work of E. Coseriu.