This article discusses the way in which the orthography may or may not reflect changes in the pronunciation of Castilian Spanish. Examples substantiate the discussion. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)

This article defines the linguistic situation in Puerto Rico and explains why the term "bilingualism" cannot be used to accurately describe the linguistic reality there. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)

Speech samples were obtained from college student Miami-area Cuban informants in an attempt to test the hypothesis that a compensatory phonemic change takes place in certain Spanish dialects in which syllable-final and word-final /s/ appear optionally as zero. Vowel system, distinction (open versus closed), and length are looked at. (SCC)

Language is not fixed and uniform, but occurs in many variants, social, occupational, etc. These correspond to various roles in society. The learner must be prepared to assume such roles, and must try to achieve practical mastery of the corresponding language variant. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Concludes that the German used in the east Belgium newspaper differs fr om standard High German. Proceeds to list these differences in the areas of lexicology, semantics and stylistics, morphology and syntax, orthography e tc. (Text is in German.) (DS)

Two articles are included in this issue. The first article, written in Danish, focuses on an incident that occurs in the fourth act of Henrik Ibsen's play "Peer Gynt." A theory is put forth on why this particular incident, which involves the misinterpretation of the name Peer Gynt by the German character Begriffenfeldt, takes place. The…

A study examined the effect of language style and variation in speech rate on the vocalization of /l/ in local Cambridge English. This sociolinguistic feature has been described as marking southeastern varieties of British English and as a connected speech process (CSP) in its sensitivity to variation in speaking rate. Language style variables…

The typical pattern of Chinese word formation is to have native material adapt to changed circumstances. The Chinese language neither borrows nor lends words, but it does occasionally borrow concepts. The larger cultural pattern in which this occurs is that the Chinese culture borrows, if necessary, but ensures that the act of borrowing does not…

A study of the nature and function of British Sign Language (BSL) as used in the British deaf community is described. The study examined two hypotheses: (1) that the notion of diglossia applies to the British deaf signing community, and (2) that the low variety of BSL will exploit the visual medium in its grammar to a greater extent than the high…

A study compared salient variables of Canadian English from two concurrent sociodialectal surveys, one for Ottawa, Ontario and one for Vancouver, British Columbia. Using the Labovian model of phonological variation in association with sociological parameters and other linguistic variables within each specific area, the analysis investigated four…

An examination of the social psychological basis of style shifting suggests that, contrary to Labovian theory, many style shifts are not a function of shifts in attention to speech and that there are other more explanatory ways of analyzing style shifts. Some reasons for this view are: (1) attention to speech is sometimes negatively correlated…

Many people want a dictionary to give them information about acceptable and unacceptable word usage. The designations "correct" and "incorrect" are not adequate guides, for two reasons: what is acceptable usage does not remain the same from one generation to the next, and some uses that are not appropriate in formal English are appropriate in…

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

This bibliography on cross-cultural, Spanish/English linguistic borrowing consists of 185 items, virtually all of which are annotated. The bibliography is preceded by a discussion of the linguistic communities and the classification of borrowings. (KM)

This paper reviews issues and analyses in bilingual switching, or intercalation, and offers a topological model to represent the activity of code switching, sometimes under the same environmental conditions and with the same interlocutors. The topological notion of catastrophe is proposed as a means to model the various factors that influence code…