Background: Arabic is recognised as diglossic; one manifestation of diglossia is the co-existence of two varieties of the language used in different social settings: standard (or literary) Arabic (StA) and spoken Arabic (SpA). The study investigated the impact of lexical-phonological distance in Arabic (identical, cognate, unique, which are…

India is currently home to one of the world's largest English-speaking communities, in a context where the language is increasingly seen as a gateway to the world. Given the plurality of the country's social and linguistic landscape, however, a significant amount of the population does not speak or have access to the language. The impact of…

This article examines the potential of pedagogical translanguaging in a community/heritage language context. With focus on Arabic as a multidialectal and multiglossic language, the paper primarily examines the function of translanguaging practices in teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction to construct and negotiate linguistic knowledge in…

Aboriginal English, the language many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students bring to the classroom, represents the introduction of significant change into the English language. It is the argument of this paper that the linguistic, social and cultural facts associated with the distinctiveness of Aboriginal English need to be taken into…

This paper is meant to illuminate the possibility of how world Englishes within an international setting could become similar to the confusion encountered in the Bible record of the Tower of Babel. Presented here is the trend of world Englishes as a part of an English as an international language paradigm. The discussion then proceeds to address…

A considerable amount of time has elapsed since the existence of a distinct variety of English, Brunei English (BNE), was mooted in the early 1990s. A subsequent study conducted by Svalberg in 1998 suggested that BNE was then in its infancy and that its speakers were largely unaware of the differences between it and Standard British English (STE).…

This feature lists approved additions and revisions to the academy dictionaries of Spanish as of October and November of 1973. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)

Discusses abbreviations in contemporary French words from a sociolinguistic point of view, taking into account the morphological and syntactical consequences. (AM)

Presents examples of vocabulary items and expressions which can be found in Canada, particularly in Quebec, and which would be misunderstood, or not understood at all, by the average Frenchman. (AM)

Explores the Indian, African, and American influences on the lexicon, phonology, orthography, morphology, and syntax of Brazilian Portuguese. (AM)

Discusses the reasons for and prevalence of English words and phrases in the German language. (KM)

Attempts to classify the differences between Quebec French and Standard French, and contrasts arguments in favor of integrating Quebec French with the Standard with arguments in favor of maintaining lexical separation. (Text is in French.) (CDSH/CLK)

This article describes a process by which the number of apparent cognates between Standard Japanese and the Hirara dialect increased, a process in conflict with the accepted theory that as time goes by, the number of cognates between related languages declines. (CLK)

This article characterizes the extent and nature of the vocabulary changes in the People's Republic of China by identifying general areas of change and by observing particular features of the changes. (CLK)

This article discusses the use of the expression "a nivel de" (level with) in Colombian Spanish. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)