The empirical basis for this article is a series of studies of glottalization in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. These studies show that, while females lead in the use of glottal replacement, males prefer glottalization. This pattern is interpreted in terms of a preference of males for localized variants, whereas females lead in adopting supra-local…

Provides a framework to describe the variability between negative auxiliaries in predicative constructions based on a quantitative analysis of data collected on African American vernacular English. Results indicate that, with the possible exception of the negative present variation, the alternations all belong to one underlying system. (56…

Discusses residual bilingualism as a means of identifying the nature, quantity, and distribution of Dutch-origin elements in the speech of different users of French in Brussels. Observations on code switching in a community of monoglots, bilinguals, and immigrants help provide a frame of reference for similar complex bilingual contexts elsewhere.…

Discursive functions are seldom expressed in an absolutely neutral way. In most cases, various colorings - expressive, affective or social - are superimposed on the utterance by which a function is conveyed. In so far as these colorings are not random shades, but can be regarded as graded nuances within given ranges, selected in order to fit the…

The semantic change which has occurred in an Austrian community over the past seventy-five years is examined. The study is based on a comparison of an 1897 word list, sound inventory, and phonograph recording with 1973 recordings of sixty informants from four age groups and five socioeconomic strata. In Inmst, the development from an…

A study combining qualitative and quantitative research methods (a direct survey) investigated the attitudes of 75 working class individuals in Glasgow, Scotland toward differences in the speech of older or younger people and in the speech of the opposite sex. Results indicate that dialect lexis loss was neither as thorough nor as abrupt as older…

Spanish American plural formation is discussed in relation to attempts that have been made to write a set of phonological rules that would correctly predict the Spanish plural using a combination of phonological rules and word structure constraints. A brief synopsis is resented of why previous attempts to predict the plural are in error.…

Reports on a sociolinguistic survey conducted in Tokyo, Japan, that explores the social factors that relate to the use of nonstandard expressions among younger people. Sex, media exposure, and friendship networks were found to influence language standardization. (25 references) (Author/OD)

Seven everyday topics are discussed in Basa Djarkarta, a dialect of Malay spoken in Djarkarta by over three million people. The purpose of the reading text, part of the basic course in Indonesian for official United States military personnel, is to acquaint students with this increasingly popular dialect in addition to Bahasa Indonesian, the…

This report is the result of a sociolinguistic survey of the French-speaking minority of Welland, Ontario, most of which is bilingual. Interviews were carried out and taped in French with sixty French-speaking adults. Two series of closed questions and one series of open questions were asked, the former yielding detailed data concerning the…

Discusses the birthday notices that appear in the advertising section of the Papua New Guinea "Post Courier." The texts of these notices are analyzed from a sociolinguistic perspective, and their context is considered as a register of the variety of English that has become known as Papua New Guinea English. (Author/OD)

This work attempts to provide an overview of linguistic diversity in South Asia and to place this diversity in a cultural context. The work tries to describe the current state of knowledge concerning socially conditioned language variation in the subcontinent. Each of five major language families contains numerous mutually intelligible and…

An understanding of dialect differences goes beyond the recognition that people talk differently; it concerns the way dialects differentiate themselves, the main differences in the patterns, and the method of discovering the patterns of various dialects. This booklet is intended for those who need to know more specific information concerning the…

The Swedish address system is in a state of rapid change. Consequently, Swedes are now more than ever sensitive to the seeming lack of generally accepted rules of usage. This paper attempts to codify the rules for usage of the personal pronouns "du" and "ni." In so doing, it finds that "du" may be used to express…

Some bases of intra-group identification among Black people who inhabit urban ghettoes are discussed, as well as the economy of the ghetto, especially as it pertains to the strategies that Black Americans have evolved to deal with their subsistence problems. An attempt is made to relate these strategies to the presence of in-group schisms and to…