Discusses the rise of Mexican Spanish as a distinct variety of Spanish and describes the regional and social dialects of contemporary Mexican Spanish. Although countless similarities exist between Mexican Spanish and the Chicano Spanish spoken in the southwestern United States, Mexican Spanish shows greater variability. (GR)

In an analysis of social class, social network, and gender, arguments suggest that gender difference often occurs prior to social class in accounting for sociolinguistic variation. Data are presented to show how all three variables may help account for language variation and change. (54 references) (Author/LB)

Notes that secondary English teachers must negotiate between using standard professional discourse and the sub-discourse used within a particular school or school district. Suggests strategies to use to help future teachers negotiate between the two. (NH)

This dictionary is a composite of four Philippine Creole Spanish dialects: Cotabato Chabacano and variants spoken in Ternate, Cavite City, and Zamboanga City. The volume contains 6,542 main lexical entries with corresponding entries with contrasting data from the three other variants. A concluding section summarizes findings of the dialect study…

From a survey of over a thousand "diapoints" emerges a clear distributional pattern of nasal vowels in the contemporary dialects of China. They tend to occupy the lower portion of the vowel space. Three hypotheses are proposed to explain this phenomenon and each hypothesis is examined against a broad data base. (Author/TL)

This article discusses the fact the extralinguistic factors can cause interference in second language learning and usage as well as linguistic ones. Specific reference is made to the Hakka villagers in the New Territories of Hong Kong. (CLK)

Examines the resemblances - morphological, syntactic, lexical and phonological - among North American French dialects today in order to determine the extent to which these represent a common source. (PMP)

It is argued that findings and techniques from both sociolinguistics and theoretical geography can aid in improving descriptions of geographical variation in language. Social and spatial characteristics of language change may thereby be better explained. (CK)

A study investigated dialect change in a southern Netherlands city, where the dialect spoken is distant from Dutch in phonology, morphology, and lexicon. The dialect is commonly spoken in the city of Maastricht, and is not restricted to one social class. Subjects were 64 native inhabitants of Maastricht from three generations: older (over 55…

Discusses the theories of various linguists concerning variation and argues that genetically related languages and related dialects are manifestations of the same linguistic phenomenon. (PM)

It is evident that, when dialect similarity exists between speakers and listeners, listeners tend to be more accepting of the speakers than when there is a difference in dialect. In order to ascertain the effects on listeners of the dialects of Ford and Carter in the 1976 presidential debates, a questionnaire was administered to 252 students who…

The syntax of the relative clause in the Saraswat Brahmin dialect of Konkani, an Indo-Aryan language, has been Dravidianized because of the impact of the Dravidian Kannada language, operating through bilingual speakers. The Konkani-Kannada bilingual situation is described and an explanatory account of the syntactic change is given. (Author/CLK)

Nahuatl was the indigenous, prehispanic Mexican language, still spoken today, and related to the nontonal languages of Mesoamerica. Several Nahuatl dialects are mentioned: Cazcan, Pipil, the extinct Pochuteco, and four dialects distinguished geographically, east, north, central, and west. These are discussed with attention to the development of…