Quantitative evidence is presented for a change in vernacular Black English (VBE) that appears to involve increasing similarities between VBE and other varieties. It is suggested that, although Black varieties and White varieties of English remain distinct and undergo certain changes separately, this need not be regarded as absolute divergence.…

A comparison of the contour alignment of nuclear and initial prenuclear accents was carried out for the Irish dialects of Gaoth Dobhair in Ulster (GD-U) and Cois Fharraige in Connaught (CF-C). This was done across conditions where the number of unstressed syllables following the nuclear and preceding the initial prenuclear accents was varied from…

This volume is devoted to papers of an empirical or theoretical nature contributing to the study of language and communicative bahavior in the Philippines. Articles included are: (1) "Three Criteria for Establishing Dialect Boundries," by Michael Ross Walrod; (2) "Topic in Tagalog Revisited," by Teresita C. Rafael; (3)…

This article reports the results of research carried out in London using five-year-old children of working class and middle class backgrounds. Speech samples were collected and compared on the basis of grammatical categories. It was discovered that working class children used more pronouns than their middle class counterparts in third person…

A consensus has prevailed among educators that Americans of verying ethnic, social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds who must communicate with each other in social, academic, and occupational situations might achieve a greater degree of rapport if the dialect of the English mutually spoken and the speech mannerisms used were standardized.…

The language proficiency of four groups of children, Negro and white, in one southern community, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, is examined. The goals of this study were threefold: (1) to study the development of language patterns in first grade children from these socioeconomic groups; (2) to determine the effectiveness of the Gloria and David…

This study of vocabulary change investigates the regional vocabularies found in eight of the Southern states and seeks conclusions about the relative changes in uniformity in current local use. Assumptions, procedures, and techniques for research are presented here. The results reported were obtained from a printed vocabulary questionnaire…

Measurement of the mutual intelligibility of dialects of a language is discussed. The focus is on several theoretical constructs in measurement, illustrated with data from an earlier study of the mutual intelligibility of 17 Chinese dialects. Measurement procedures are also explained. It is proposed that mutual intelligibility is based on the…

Mestreechs, the dialect of Dutch spoken in Maastricht, the Netherlands, is analyzed for patterns of phonological duration or quantity. Two forms of prosody, hard (H) and slurred (S), are distinguished and their distribution is examined, making reference to previous research on Dutch phonology and on the realization of prosody in Northern European…

Schools should provide opportunities for students, especially Black students, to become knowledgeable about their language system and culture. (JH)

A discussion and clarification of various forms and levels of Black English is provided together with a conjugation of the verb "to be" outlining the levels of meanings as used by most divergent black speakers. (EH)

Recently the relevance of dialectological study to reading instruction has become apparent. The teacher speaks one language while the child, often disadvantaged, speaks another. The ability to identify utterances is attributed to human tolerance called the phoneme concept, a generalization of a potentially infinite number of sounds into a small…

Based on tape recorded conversations of 28 informants in 18 Louisiana communities, this study investigated regional phonological variants in Louisiana speech. On the basis of settlement history and previous dialect studies, four regions are defined: northern Louisiana, the Florida Parishes, French Louisiana, and New Orleans. The informants are all…

This analysis of the Nambiquara languages spoken by American Indians living in Brazil focuses on the phonological systems, the phonological reflexes, Proto-Nambiquara vocabulary and non-cognate vocabulary, and geographical distribution. Comparisons are made with published sources. (SW)