This paper examines BELF (Business English as a Lingua Franca) teaching and researching in China. A literature review is conducted using the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database. This survey includes a cursory literature search on BELF and a thorough literature study of 12 Chinese major academic journals. From the data collected…

Reports on attempts to reconstruct the Proto-Chinese sound system, based on linguistic data from modern Chinese dialects rather than ancient rhyme dictionaries and tables, resulting in a sound system with 29 onsets and 74 rhymes and some new rules for sound changes. (18 references) (Author/CB)

Discusses the close relationship between historical linguistics and dialectology, pointing out, through analysis and reconstruction of Taiwanese dialects, that the tasks of dialectologists do not stop at the making of linguistic atlases and must go beyond those tasks to reconstruct the proto-forms. (two references) (Author/CB)

Describes the lexical characteristics of South African Indian English, focusing on its similarities with English in India, pidgins and creoles, and other expatriate Indian Englishes. (Author/CB)

Focuses attention on the intent of this special issue to highlight a small number of key issues, directions, and questions on the changing contexts in which scholarship on Africanized English and school education is occurring, including reference to past Black English, dialect studies, the changing demographics of the students, and the complexity…

Describes the social situations and attitudes of speakers of Dyirbal in addition to changing language identifications, and reports on Dyirbal contract in lexical and grammatical complexity as it has moved toward an inevitable extinction. (11 references) (GLR)

Critiques controversies about Chicano dialects and, particularly, the linguistic status of Chicano English. Proposes a model of Chicano languages/dialects based on assumptions about the nature of the speech setting of Chicanos. Characterizes Chicano English as the autonomous vernacular dialect of native-English-speaking Chicanos. (70 references)…

The applicability of the notion of "speech community" in urban centers where considerable dialect mixing takes place is discussed. Labov's model is examined and four speech community criteria are emphasized: nativeness of speech community members, uniform patterns of linguistic variation, shared evaluation of features, and close…

A study of speakers of a range of English dialects was conducted to investigate some influences on the pattern of phonetic final devoicing of phonologically voiced fricatives and affricates. With the help of spectrographically examined tape-recorded speech derived from sociolinguistic interviews of the subjects, the study examined seven English…

A brief reveiw of recent literature in France on bilingualism, or more properly, diglossia. In the context of a bi- or pluri-linguistic situation, dialectology, linguistic distribution of both speakers and systems, official and regional languages, and the problem of belonging to a linguistic community and ethnic identification are discussed. (AMH)

Discusses the rise of Mexican Spanish as a distinct variety of Spanish and describes the regional and social dialects of contemporary Mexican Spanish. Although countless similarities exist between Mexican Spanish and the Chicano Spanish spoken in the southwestern United States, Mexican Spanish shows greater variability. (GR)

Discusses some of the theoretical issues underlying the study of Chinese dialects, reviews the historical background within which the dialects were formed, and reviews some ongoing studies that appear promising for increasing understanding of how dialects are structured and how they are changing. (CB)

Explores the status of the Zamboangueno dialect, discusses the various stages of decreolization in the direction of Spanish, and suggests possible avenues for the continued introduction of elements from an acrolect which, for all intents and purposes, is no longer generally available to residents of Zamboanga, Philippines. (Author/CB)

The paper being reviewed puts the vernacular in the perspective of the linguistic repertoire of a speech community. It is suggested that the repertoire as a single system should be seen on a societal or individual level rather than on a linguistic level such that various codes are selected by members of the community according to socially…

This paper makes three arguments reaffirming the overwhelming complexities inherent in any real history of the language of blacks in North America. (1) Although the study of black English, however that term may be defined, is desirable in itself and was profitable for white linguists during the 1960s and early 1970s, it did not and never will do…