The article focuses on methodological tendences in urban language research. Authors, meanwhile, substantiate rationality of its spoken and written varieties as separate fields of study. These studies are marked with a high rate of activity and they highlight a new concept of the «regiolect» — a regional variety of the national language. The analysis of the scientific results of linguo-urbanistics reveals the dominance of the onomastic vector and obvious lack of research into urban speech. The authors specify discrepancies in the function of written and spoken language in linguistic, semiotic and psychological aspects. They also state destructive results of simple mechanical transfer of oral speech techniques to urban epigraphy, the differences between word-formation processes in written and oral speech are described. The visuality of a written sign, the possibility of hybrid word formation with the help of other symbolic and graphic systems, as well as the activity of language norms are listed as features of written communication. A distinctive feature of the oral form is the possibility of meaning explication through non-verbal signs. According to the authors, greater reliability of scientific results in the field of modern urban studies can be achieved through compliance with the principle of unmixed study of living speech and urban writing.