Abstract This article discusses some approaches to the conceptualization of isolation in sociolinguistic research. It argues that isolation is a multifaceted phenomenon with geographic, social and attitudinal implications. Based on evidence from geographically isolated speech communities (mostly islands) and socially isolated ones (so‐called Sprachinseln ) from around the world, it discusses their potential for variation and change studies, both in terms of synchrony (contact phenomena, language obsolescence or revival and intensification, language and identity, etc.) and diachrony, because they provide showcase scenarios to look into and reconstruct mechanisms of contact linguistics (e.g. new‐dialect formation), founder effects, colonial lag, etc.
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