Argues that both language-contact factors and typological evolution can effect changes in languages and language typology over time, and that it is not always easy to understand which factor has played a more prominent role in language change. Typological, areal, and socio-historical linguistics call for interdisciplinary cooperation. Examples are…

A discussion of areal linguistics and Amazonian languages looks at common properties of Amazonian languages, the occurrence, origins, and development of evidentiality systems in a number of those languages, and patterns of grammatical diffusion. Concludes that communities in the Amazonian linguistics area share common beliefs, mental attitudes,…

A study took features identified by specialists as typical for the Balkan and Meso-American linguistic areas and counted them for each relevant language. The resulting ranking of languages reflects the extent to which each language exemplifies the areal type, which was then plotted on isopleth maps. Both rankings and maps are useful in…

The comments presented here were made after the presentation of four papers and commentary by two other symposium participants. They address issues in language comparison and classification. First, comments are made on the papers ("An African Test Case in Comparative Methodology,""The Mathematics of Multilateral Comparison,""Testing a Basic…

The Uniform Slavic Transliteration Alphabet (USTA) was designed primarily with the following objectives: to aid librarians (catalogers and bibliographers), information scientists, transliterators, and editors of bibliographic works of the many Slavic tongues; and to serve as original research for the further development of a machine-readable…

Suggests some reasons why the exploration and description of language function is often an untidy exercise but, none-the-less very rewarding and rich in implication for English teaching. (Author/RK)

Discusses residual bilingualism as a means of identifying the nature, quantity, and distribution of Dutch-origin elements in the speech of different users of French in Brussels. Observations on code switching in a community of monoglots, bilinguals, and immigrants help provide a frame of reference for similar complex bilingual contexts elsewhere.…

Criticizes mainstream dialectology and linguistic atlases as outdated, and suggests a method for mapping the language of the Southwest. (CK)

A careful study of second language varieties (SLVs) of English, which have not yet entered the mainstream of sociolinguistic research because of neglect and misunderstanding, shows that they are qualitatively different from the categories recognized in current sociolinguistic typology. SLVs provide some of the clearest evidence of sociocultural…

This study compared the vocabulary of the period from 1943 to 1945 to the vocabulary of 1975. In addition to a direct comparison of word use, an indirect comparison was made using Thorndike's word list in the "Teacher's Word Book" (1931). The 1975 vocabulary, based on frequency of word appearance, was derived from 93 speeches made by students in…

This is a reprint of a work published in 1873. Cross-referenced definitions of languages and dialects, geographical areas, native peoples, and philological terms comprise the major portion of this book. Approximately 4,200 entries are included. An intoduction describes the geographical distribution of major languages. [Not available in hard copy…

The purpose of this article is to briefly review recent findings on Ontarian French; to refute claims that it is not an authentic French dialect; and to examine some of the implications these findings may have for French language instruction in Ontario. (Author/SJL)

Different types of Persian impact on Irano-Turkic language varieties are surveyed and classified according to the Code-Copying model, which implies that copies of elements from foreign codes are inserted, globally or selectively, into a basic code that provides the morphosyntactic frame for the insertion. The study investigates under what…

In this paper, the multilateral comparison method of classifying languages is described and analyzed. It is suggested that while it is espoused as a simple and reasonable approach to language classification, the method has serious flaws. "Multilateral" or "mass" comparison (MC) is not a method of genetic language…

This study analyzes the sound correspondences of six Oceanic languages using reconstructed forms from Proto-Oceanic as a frame of reference. Sobei, Wakde, Masimasi, Anus, Bojgo, and Tarpia provide the cognates used in the analysis. Consonants and vowels are analyzed, and sound correspondences are examined for regularity of development and possible…