Historic linguistic consequences were studied in five separate areas of Atlantic Canada's Acadian population. Focus was on certain verbs in the third person present plural and the hypothesis that "allent" and faisent" are the result of hypercorrection. Results suggest complex reasons for their use and an indication of some social…

Acoustic analysis of two vowels thought to be merged in Utah English suggest that there are small but consistent differences between them. A matched guise experiment provides evidence that when the vowels are merged hypercorrection is involved. (33 references) (LB)

A comparison of the performance of age- and intelligence-matched bilingual (n=46) and monolingual (n=38) six- and seven-year olds on the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities indicated that the bilinguals had significantly inferior performance in tests of the visual-motor channel, analogous auditory-vocal tests, and representative level. (18…

Yanggu, Anxiang, and Yuanyang diminutives and Cantonese familiar name formation are examined in the light of recent understanding about the role of prosodic categories in phonology and morphology. The results lend strong support to the growing body of research in prosodic morphology, especially the pioneering work of McCarthy and Prince. (52…

In conversations between bilinguals, each of whom is a learner of the other's language, two different local patterns of codeswitching may emerge: compliance and mutual convergence. It is argued that a pattern of compliance is ultimately more accommodating that convergence, contrary to the claims of Speech Accommodation Theory. (20 references)…

A one-semester course in Schwyzertutsch is described. The Swiss German dialect is taught as the twenty-sixth language in the noncredit extension service of the University of Queensland. (LB)

This study concerns the urban vernacular "Leewarders" and the two other languages, Dutch and Frisian, spoken in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. The study was carried out by interviews, a survey, a variant of the matched-guise experiment, and participant observation. (JL)

The marking of past temporal reference in Black English Vernacular (BEV) and Trinidadian English is compared. Similarities in the patterns of variation according to verb type and phonological conditioning suggest that past marking in contemporary BEV preserves traces of an earlier shift from a creole pattern to one approximating the Standard…

Investigates the double compound that is a feature of the regional French of the langue d'oc and franco-provencal areas. Analysis suggests that, in addition to the temporal and aspectual properties traditionally attributed to this form, the expressive properties of the surcompose regional are central to any description of its function in…

A review of some of the interesting aspects of Hakka dialect studies precedes a discussion of areas needing further linguistic study, such as its resemblance to and contacts with other Chinese dialects, tonal correspondences, and the study of Chinese dialects from a Wellentheorie perspective. (53 references) (CB)

Describes the situation of minority languages and Chinese dialects, discusses and analyzes language planning and language reform of spoken Chinese, summarizes language achievements made through China's educational system, and discusses the problems that remain for spoken language reform in China. (25 references) (Author/CB)

Describes the dilemmas involved with teaching Standard American English (SAE) while still accepting and not judging nonstandard dialects. Relates how the teacher used "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw to show students why they needed to learn SAE. (PRA)

Discusses how activities relating to dialect and nonstandard English are integrated into the curriculum in a middle school English class. Describes numerous class activities that result from reading aloud literary works in a wide array of dialects. Asserts the need for respect for linguistic variation in the classroom and in society. (PRA)

Compares studies of English-based creoles in Atlantic with work on pidgins and creoles in Pacific to examine the core of lexicon that cannot be traced to current standard English and historical relationship between languages. The lexical base of Pacific varieties was both English and English-based creoles of the Atlantic. Grammatical and lexical…

Provides data from a study that sought to determine and compare the attitudes of both native and nonnative speakers of English who listened to the specific regional accents of the English spoken in the United States. The groups judgments differed, and nonnative speakers were better able to perceive differences in regional accents of U.S. English.…