Because an instructor's attitude toward students' language is a crucial factor in determining whether students will be active participants in the educational process, it is important for teachers to be aware of dialect differences. Labelled by many as "nonstandard," Black English is a dialect derived from Gullah, a creole based on…

Sociolinguistic studies of spoken Arabic show at least three varieties at different levels of prestige: (1) Modern Standard Arabic (MSA); (2) regional standard with local prestige; and (3) vernacular varieties. The social function of the local prestigious nonstandard features can override the influence of the prestige of MSA. (Author/LMO)

The Pennsylvania German (PG) linguistic situation offers a unique insight into the mechanisms of language change, and specifically of syntactic change. Pennsylvania German consists of two primary varieties, (Plain (PPG) and Nonplain (NPG), a distinction based on the Anabaptist socioreligious affiliations of the former group that has produced two…

The research described here confirmed the hypothesis that for each variable, the Hispanic variant is realized in higher percentages in syllable-timed utterances and that the non-Hispanic variant is realized in higher percentages in stress-timed utterances. (Author/RM)

Suggests that the departing tone in Chinese arose not through the loss of the final "h," but through a glottalized phonation stage that is still observable. Historical sources supporting this theory are presented, and an account of the development of middle Chinese tones into Mandarin is proposed. (SED)

Teachers must learn to accept the fact that variation in language is part of the communicative competence of a linguistically mature individual. (RC)

This article explores the modalities of accommodation of two dialectophones [speakers of a dialect] in the Haut-Valais [this is a regional place name], one of whom has lived in Berne, Switzerland for more than 20 years, the other for several years. By exploiting the notion of repertoire, the study focused on the greater or lesser convergence…

The overall construction, internal organization, and utility of an inventory of Black African French variants are reviewed and found highly useful. Part of a page is reproduced as an example. (MSE)

An examination of linguists' attempts to characterize the variety of English used in various articles and novels found that, although they used different criteria for classification, the linguists almost equally (about 30 percent of the time each) either could not identify, correctly identified, or incorrectly identified the variety. (14…

Briefly explores the usage patterns of American English words, terms, or expressions such as "y'all" and other second plural pronouns, English conditionals, "greasy' by East-Central Pennsylvanians, who or whom, the genderless "-person" suffix, and Russianisms. (CB)

Attempts to reconcile the similarities and differences among Philippine Creole Spanish (PCS) dialects by suggesting that Zamboangueno was formed gradually in a downward fashion from received Spanish, aided by two components. The first is pidginization that resulted in the Spanish garrison at Zamboanga, and the second was the arrival of Manila Bay…

Investigates the extent to which users of Black South African English (BSAE) command the vowel system of English. One mother tongue speaker each of English, Southern Sotho, and Zulu read a set of stimulus words representing various monothong contrasts in standard South African English. Results are discussed in relation to the question of whether…

Variation in the past-tense model of the verb "be" is widespread amongst English dialects, and is often considered to be the result of analogical levelling. Through an analysis of non-standard "was" in buckie English, a variety spoken in a small fishing town in northeast Scotland, this article shows that the historical record…

This volume gathers a sampling of educators' ideas on the issue of the role of the non-standard dialect in the teaching of Spanish to Spanish speakers. Part one, "Rationale for the Teaching of Spanish to the Spanish Speaking," deals with philosophy and theory and contains papers by Guadalupe Valdes Fallis and Nasario Garcia. Part two,…

This article summarizes the language planning situation in Denmark, specifically dealing with: (1) sociolinguistic characteristics of the modern Danish speech community; (2) types of language problems prevailing in this community; (3) organizations involved in language planning in Denmark; (4) the organization and operation of the Danish Language…