Current work in American dialectology is summarized and commented on. (Available from: See FL 508 214.) (RM)

One of the most significant problems that linguists face in their attempts to describe Vernacular Black English (VBE) is the matter of fluctuating forms. It is consistently observed that speakers appear to fluctuate between a socially stigmatized variant and its presumed nonstigmatized counterpart. Fluctuations in VBE have often been viewed as a…

Examins historical and current views of pidgins and creoles. (KM)

Advocates more scholarly attention to language planning processes in Israel. (PM)

This document contains a manual and two cassette tapes designed to help actors and actresses learn to speak various dialects. The tapes and the manual are arranged for the play-it-and-say-it method of dialect acquisition. The first three parts discuss the tapes and the manual in general, the dialect texts and dialect data, and the steps involved…

Shortened version of this paper was presented in New York, N.Y., March 14, 1970, at the Fifteenth Annual National Conference on Linguistics sponsored by The International Linguistic Association. (RS)

LABELING TECHNIQUES FOR INDICATING LEXICOGRAPHIC VARIATIONS IN NATIONAL AND REGIONAL USE OF WORDS WERE DISCUSSED. THE REPORT SUGGESTS THAT TECHNIQUES ARE NECESSARY, FOR EXAMPLE, TO DISTINGUISH VARIATIONS AMONG THE ENGLISH DIALECTS OF ENGLAND, AMERICA, CANADA, SCOTLAND, AUSTRALIA, AND SOUTH AFRICA. THIS REPORT IS ONE OF A SERIES OF 13 PAPERS…

Among the characteristics which set Bordeaux French apart from Standard French are the rules governing the behavior of its mid-vowels. These rules are much simpler and more extensive (in that they also apply to unstressed vowels) than in Standard French. Their application is, however, systematically conditioned by the presence or absence of word…

The characteristics of several nonstandard dialects of American English are presented in this paper in the form of an inventory of features. It has been compiled with the recognition that nonstandard dialects are governed by pronunciation and grammatical rules and that within the broad category of nonstandard dialects, regional and ethnic…

This study was conducted to examine certain social factors, such as sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic group, as they influence the speech of a sample of black and white children, aged 10-12, from a lower socioeconomic group in Albany, New York. The tapes of the interviews were analyzed to determine the usage of the nonstandard forms of four…

Research conducted in the Italian town of Pescasseroli revealed that cultural changes had provoked various changes in the local dialect. This dialect had been greatly transfored in the last 15 years by the modification or disappearance of old cultural models and the intrusion of new ones. (CFM)

The proposition that education affects dialect to a significant degree is examined. The findings leave doubt whether an educational differential is adequate to explain the maintenance of dialect differences between ethnic groups. (Author/RM)

The article presents an argument supporting the validity of using sub-standard dialects as a starting point to aid continuing education teachers teaching standard English. The advantages of the dialect approach are considered, and suggestions for distinguishing among dialects, assessing them, and using them are presented in conclusion. (Author/AG)

The two purposes of this study were to analyze the linguistic studies of the speech of black Americans which began in 1865 and ended in 1972 and to determine, on the basis of the studies analyzed, whether or not a black dialect exists. First, 73 studies were read and analyzed; second, these studies were categorized according to the investigators'…

The situation in the U.S. is different from that in England, France and other European countries: in each of those countries there is something that is known as the standard language, and a number of dialects apart from the standard language. There is also a rather close consensus on what the standard dialect is (especially on phonological lines).…