A study investigated how and why code switching and mixing occurs between English and Afrikaans in a region of South Africa. In District Six, non-standard Afrikaans seems to be a mixed code, and it is unclear whether non-standard English is a mixed code. Consequently, it is unclear when codes are being switched or mixed. The analysis looks at…

Twenty linguistic features found in essays of Creole-speaking students taking remedial writing courses at Hunter College are discussed and illustrated. The students spoke a creole or post-creole language as their mother tongue. The language varieties, which are those most frequently encountered in East Coast urban centers from Boston to Miami, are…

A study was conducted of the Baie Sainte-Marie Acadian dialect, a particular form of the French language derived from the French spoken in France during the 16th and 17th centuries. The purpose of this study was to analyze and explain a certain number of morphosyntactic deviations from standard French, from both a synchronic and a diachronic…

In the French verb phrase, negation is often marked twice, by a proclitic element (ne) and by a second negative (such as "pas" or "rien"). Until the seventeenth century, the first element was obligatory, while a second negative was optionally added for emphasis or precision. Subsequently, the second negatives lost their…

Describes the inroads made into Canadian French by English phonology, vocabulary, and syntax, and argues for a "refrancisation" which will preserve the unique flavor of Canadian French. (AM)

A review of previous analyses of the syntax of Fuzhou Tone Sandhi precedes the exploration of grammatical relations and the application of phrase-level tone sandhi rules, concluding that modifiers, but not arguments, preceding the head can undergo tone sandhi, as can heads preceding arguments, but not modifiers. (18 references) (Author/CB)

Representative research studies of the interference of Vernacular Black English (VBE) on beginning reading of VBE speakers at the phonological, grammatical, and lexical and content levels are examined. The following conclusions emerge: (1) phonological interference in learning to read has not been established; (2) VBE does not clearly interfere…

This discussion begins with a brief description of three approaches to teaching standard Spanish as a second dialect (S.S.S.D.), called the "eradication" approach, the "second dialect" approach, and the "both dialects" approach, which is favored here. Because the teacher of standard Spanish as a second dialect is…

Previous studies have demonstrated that certain differences in speech behavior can be related to the social characteristics of speakers. However, these studies have not explicitly examined the effect of level of linguistic analysis on correlations observed between language variables and status variables. Three levels of analysis of a linguistic…

Haida as spoken by residents of Hydaburg today seems to differ from the Masset dialect reported by Swanton (1911:209). This paper attempts to describe the pronoun system of Haida now in use in Hydaburg and to make a preliminary analysis of the changes which appear to have occurred since the accounts of Swanton and Harrison (1895). The following…

Verbal elements in Cairene Arabic are investigated in the light of two opposing hypotheses, one stating that the elements constitute a unit, the other stating that each element is an independent predicate. (AM)

Examines several longstanding, isolated biracial sociolinguistic situations in the coastal and Appalachian regions of North Carolina: a core community of African Americans and two case studies of isolated speakers. Compares diagnostic phonological and morphosyntactic variables for speakers representing different generations of African American and…

Analyzes the word order in noun phrases with a genitive modifier in the colloquial speech of the Russian diaspora in Finland. Informants are considered as either dialect speakers or non-dialect speakers. The study demonstrates how intralinguistic, interlinguistic, and extralinguistic factors operate cojointly, inducing language change. (Author/VWL)

Harold Allen states that language study will become an integral component of the college English curriculum when English departments recognize that a professional knowledge of the nature and function of language, of current theoretical studies in it, and of the geographical, historical, and social variations in language is vital to understanding…

This paper reviews some recent research on the relationship of group processes and cultural milieux to choice of linguistic form and Its implications for problem solving in small (minority) groups. Basic to the discussion is the concept that language usage conveys important social information and is therefore not a matter of choice but must be…