Recounts entrance of language study into the curriculum and suggests areas potentially interesting to students. (RD)

Surveys the literature dealing with languages in Latin America and the Caribbean, and also outlines the efforts made by several countries of the region to study native languages, construct linguistic atlases and establish language standards. (CHK)

This paper analyzes a selected bibliography on the Chinese dialect literature. It discussed the role dialects have played in development of Chinese language reform; the form in which major dialects are written; subject matter written about, and statistical correlation between dialects, subject matter and forms of writing. (CHK)

Examines linguistic and social factors reflected in the development of American Czech, spoken by Czech immigrants living in rural Nebraska communities, distinguishing between fully competent, proficient, and imperfect speakers. Despite the undisputed English influence, American Czech shared characteristics with other enclave languages developing…

Factors in the formation of standard Spanish in the American continent are reviewed, including historical and sociological variables, and the evolution of various phonological, sociolinguistic, and written features from Castilian Spanish are discussed. In light of rapid change in Latin American society, future directions for dialect study are…

Describes the origins and characteristics of six southern dialects: (1) South Midland; (2) Florida Cracker; (3) Gullah; (4) Southern Black Dialect; (5) Acadian French; and (6) Cajun English. Suggests books representative of each that can be used to introduce these dialects to elementary children. (NH)

This paper considers some aspects of sentence construction characteristic of the variety of English spoken at Isleta pueblo, an Indian community located fifteen miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. (CK)

In a study of non-disadvantaged Hawaiian school children, a free recall task was used to compare the performance of standard English speaking children to a group of children speaking Hawaiian Islands dialect. The major finding was that dialect speakers actually possess verbal skills in standard English, despite assessments based on schoolroom…

Research has demonstrated that many linguistic features correlate with social stratification of speakers and that these features often serve as social identifiers that trigger language stereotypes. An experiment was conducted to verify these findings with regard to Portuguese ethnic groups. Judges from four Portuguese-speaking ethnic groups…

The paper being reviewed puts the vernacular in the perspective of the linguistic repertoire of a speech community. It is suggested that the repertoire as a single system should be seen on a societal or individual level rather than on a linguistic level such that various codes are selected by members of the community according to socially…

This study investigates the relationship between social class membership and certain syntactic variables within a generative-transformational linguistic framework. Fourteen syntactic items are considered. Linguistic performance is more variable and complex within the higher ranking groups. (TL)

There exists a need to identify and recognize the Spanish dialect used in the Southwest United States in order to change the tradition of looking at it as inferior to standard Spanish and to English. The history of the Spanish-speaking people in the Southwest and of the changes in their culture brought about by colonialism is connected with the…

RECENT LINGUISTIC RESEARCH SHOWS THAT THE SPEECH PATTERNS OF SOUTHERN NEGROES CONSTITUTE A LEGITIMATE DIALECT OF ENGLISH WITH PHONOLOGICAL AND GRAMMATICAL RULES SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT FROM GENERAL AMERICAN ENGLISH (GAE). AN EXPERIMENT WAS DESIGNED TO DETERMINE WHETHER THOSE ASPECTS OF THE NEGRO DIALECT WHICH SET IT APART FROM OTHER ENGLISH DIALECTS…

THIS INTRODUCTION TO THE STRUCTURE AND BACKGROUND OF THE SWAHILI LANGUAGE WAS WRITTEN FOR THE NON-SPECIALIST. ALTHOUGH THE LINGUISTIC TERMINOLOGY USED IN THE DESCRIPTION OF THE LANGUAGE ASSUMES THE READER HAS HAD SOME TRAINING IN LINGUISTICS, THIS HANDBOOK PROVIDES BASIC LINGUISTIC AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS OF AFRICAN CULTURE…