This speech-communication examination is a "dyadic" test in which students, issued a set of cards to be marked according to directions, are assigned partners with whom they communicate and respond to in turn. This latest version of dyadic tests has been administered in rural and urban public schools in Hawaii, to speakers of nonstandard…

This study was conducted to discover how Nonstandard Negro English speaking kindergarten children form verb phrases and what they mean by the various forms. It was limited to the main verb in each sentence; passive forms and imbedded sentences were excluded. Only verb phrases from four types of sentences were analyzed: declarative, negative,…

The frequency of miscues, repetitions of miscues, and the correction of miscues at the phoneme-grapheme, phoneme-morpheme, and the grammatical levels of linguistic structure were considered in a study conducted in Southern Alberta. A comparison of the miscues of 75 Indian students at three different grade levels--2, 4, and 6--was made. Oral…

This study of Gullah, written in 1926 by the late Reed Smith of the University of South Carolina, relies heavily on the work of earlier researchers, notably A.E. Gonzales, then editor of "The State" and author of the Black Border stories. The first two chapters presents a historical and literary background of Gullah speakers (American…

The readings in this volume have been selected for college level and graduate students in English who need an introduction to English linguistics which is neither too advanced or specialized, but has a broad range of interests. The editors (Harold Hungerford, Jay Robinson, and James Sledd) have prepared this anthology to use in their own teaching,…

The factors of race, politics, economics, and the social sciences provide a unique dilemma for black communication scholars. Such scholars must respond to forces which seek to suppress their work and must also seek better ways of understanding the unique characteristics of communication among blacks. Investigations in black English should seek an…

The present research involves teachers' attitudes. In the first phase, individual teachers from inner city schools were interviewed according to a procedure whereby selected samples of tapes of various dialects were played and the teacher was asked to describe her impressions of the child. Adjectives from these free-responses formed the basis for…

This book discusses the special jargon used by black people in the United States. In the first two chapters the author, a white man, discusses his personal experiences with the black community in order to establish an argument for the need for more awareness of what black jargon is and how it is used. Chapter three proposes that standard English…

Based on tape recorded conversations of 28 informants in 18 Louisiana communities, this study investigated regional phonological variants in Louisiana speech. On the basis of settlement history and previous dialect studies, four regions are defined: northern Louisiana, the Florida Parishes, French Louisiana, and New Orleans. The informants are all…

Educators and psychologists whose concern is to understand why a student does not succeed in school have held the view that speakers of nonstandard English are either nonverbal and, if verbal, highly ungrammatical, or so verbally destitute as to impair intellectual functioning. Linguists, on the other hand, view the language of subculture groups…

This textbook, part of "The Language of Man" series, has two sections. The first section on dialects of English tells what dialects are and details the speech patterns of Kentucky, the Pennsylvania Dutch, Yiddish, and pidgin English. The second section discusses levels of language such as informal, formal, and technical language, slang, jargon,…

A study is reported which investigated the social consequences that follow when a speaker accommodates or fails to accommodate his speech style with reference to his interlocutor. (Author/RM)

A random sampling of linguistic terms, idioms, phrases--drawn mostly from the current linguistic literature in English--is examined to determine what kinds of unrealistic or confusing assumptions about language may be subtly embedded in such expressions. (Author/RM)

Describing an inservice program designed to familiarize White teachers with Black student dialect, this article presents an inservice outline that includes the following: program purpose; objectives; program sequence (information phase, fact finding phase, data correlation and recording phase, and evaluation phase). (JC)

This analysis of the Nambiquara languages spoken by American Indians living in Brazil focuses on the phonological systems, the phonological reflexes, Proto-Nambiquara vocabulary and non-cognate vocabulary, and geographical distribution. Comparisons are made with published sources. (SW)