This study examines the pronunciation characteristics of Negro and white children from different socio-economic classes in Gainesville, Florida. As expected, there are significant differences between the white and Negro children. However, all of the Negroes and the higher whites produce both "General American" and "Southern" dialect…

This paper focusses on sex contrasts in language as revealed in recent sociolinguistic research. While there are relatively few differences in subjective language identifications and judgments, there are several clear differences in objective language data. In the Detroit Language Study, women show a greater "sensitivity" to multiple…

This paper describes a "neglected" aspect of Hawaiian ("Pidgin") English--the suprasegmental or prosodic features. Illustrated by contrastive samples of Hawaiian American English (HAE) and General American English (GAE), the salient prosodic features are presented as follows--(1) syllable-timed rhythm, modified by emphatic…

Drawing on phonological, grammatical, and usage data collected during personal interviews and taped sessions, this paper seeks to determine whether and how persons of Finnish descent, collectively or individually by generation, constitute dialect islands within the local dialect area (Marquette, Michigan), and their effect upon one another. The…

Anthropologist Melville Herskovits, in the section on language of his book "The Myth of the Negro Past" (1941), gives one of the first scientific orientations to the study of black speech in the United States. His basic contribution was to establish the following main points: (1) that the black people in the New World came from regions…

A LINGUISTIC FIELD SURVEY OF THE ENGLISH SPOKEN IN THE CULTURAL-GEOGRAPHICAL AREA OF APPALACHIA SHOWS THAT THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO MAJOR NONSTANDARD DIALECTS IN CURRENT USE. THE DIALECT FAMILY MOST COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE APPALACHIAN REGION IS MOUNTAIN SPEECH. ALTHOUGH WELL STRUCTURED AND EXPRESSIVE IN ITS OWN RIGHT, IT HAS COME TO BE…

This study is a sociolinguistic analysis of the variant pronunciation of /aI/, a selected phonological variable, by white informants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Through a purposive sampling procedure, 56 informants were interviewed to determine their pronunciation of /aI/. Informants were ranked according to education, income, and occupation to…

An extrinsic relationship between generative semantics and dialect geography should be exploited because contemporary transformational grammarians have too easily ignored the work of the dialectologist and have been too readily satisfied with what might be called armchair evidence. The work of the dialect geographers needs to be taken into…

The major objectives of this investigation were to measure (1) the effects of phonological variations of representative speakers on the social perceptions of college student listeners from socially diverse backgrounds; (2) the influence of the race and class of the listeners upon their attitudes toward dialect differences and toward the speakers;…

Discusses some ramifications of the Conference on College Composition and Communication's resolution on "Students' Right to Their Own Language." (DD)

Defining bidialectalism as a movement in education systematically to render lower-class students able to speak both their native dialect and standard English, the author states his purpose to indicate why this attempt to change people should be rejected. (Author/JB)

A wide-ranging discussion with William Labov, a sociolinguist interested in the study of nonstandard dialects, especially Black English dialect. (DD)

Summarizes the major concepts, issues, materials, methods, and recommendations related to dialects and dialect instruction. (DP)