Presents evidence that Detroit African Americans are participating in a recent sound change that is typically associated with some White but not African American varieties in the American South. Reports a leveling pattern in which /ai/ monothongization has expanded to the salient pre-voiceless context in Detroit African American English (AAE).…

Based on an investigation of spellings of German punk fanzines, this article sketches a framework for the analysis of nonstandard spellings in media texts. The analysis distinguishes between a number of spelling types, which include both representations of spoken language and purely graphemic modifications, and three patterns of spelling usage:…

Studies the quotative system of contemporary British and Canadian youth. Multivariate analysis of nearly 1300 quotative verbs demonstrates that the innovative form "be like" is productive in both Canada and Britain. Traditional quotatives such as "say,""go,""think" are used according to somewhat different…