The purpose of this dissertation was to see if dialect and socioeconomic status affected the spelling strategies used by second grade children. A list of 18 low frequency words representing the lax and tense forms of a, e, and i were administered each month for five months. The spellings were assigned a score of 1-4 corresponding to the strategy…

The need for schools and teachers who accept and understand language differences is briefly discussed. Key problems in understanding language difference are described, and effective means of motivating children to become more effective and flexible in language use are prescribed. (DB)

Production and perception of word-final "th" was assessed among 40 Black English- and 40 standard English-speaking children from grades one to four. The two dialectal groups were significantly different in production but not in perception of the word-final "th." Sequential developmental stages for the acquisition of word-final "th" are proposed…

Dialect leveling in German-speaking Switzerland is different from dialect leveling in Germany. In contrast to lexical changes, phonological and morphological changes do not follow an evolutionary direction. Research from Basel, Switzerland shows different varieties of the urban repertoire, which are all considered "Baseldeutsch" by their…

Critical review of Frederick J. Newmeyer's article, "Linguistic Theory, Language Teaching, Sociolinguistics: Can They Be Interrelated?,' in "The Modern Language Journal," v57 n8 p405-10 Dec 1973. (RL)

The author, by analyzing a research experiment shows that the teacher of black children should be taught significant elements of Negro nonstandard English. (MS)

A review of Language and Poverty: Perspectives on a Theme (Markham, 1970) by Frederick Williams (Ed.) (DS)

Presents Goodman's criticisms of Rystrom's article which appears in the same issue. (MB)

Replies critically to the article by D. K. Stevenson and R. J. Brunt, "Living English: Seeing the Forest in Spite of the Trees -- On Differences between American English and British English," in this journal, issue 1979/2. A reply by Stevenson and Brunt continues the controversy. (IFS/WGA)

Explores the distribution of /ai/ monophthongization in African-American and European-American speakers in Memphis, Tennessee. Presents evidence of extensive glide weakening in the African-American community in Memphis and compares it to the degree and contexts of glide weakening in the European-American community. (Author/VWL)

Examines the interface between language change and Creole studies. Discusses the Language Bioprogram Hypothesis, the Creole continuum, Creoles and grammaticalization, theoretic syntax, creole prototypes, and second language acquisition and language change. (Author/VWL)

The goal of this article is twofold: (1) on the basis of non-conjectural, concrete cases, to establish the linguistic situations that are characteristic of the socio-historical states of equilibrium and punctuation; and (2) to show that neither the equilibrium nor punctuation can be uniquely defined by a particular linguistic situation specific to…