Investigated the sociolinguistic variable of apical palatalization in Cairene Arabic, focusing on the roles of gender and social class in the distribution of palatalization. As in a number of other speech communities, women in Cairo seem to have been the innovators of this sound change. (27 references) (MDM)

The distribution of variants of the FACE and GOAT vowels in Tyneside English (TE) is assessed with reference to the age, sex, and social class of 32 adult TE speakers. Effects of phonological context and speaking style are also examined. Patterns in the data are suggestive of dialect leveling, whereby localized speech variants become recessive and…

Using data from Derry/Londonderry English, the impact of social factors on language variation is examined. Finds that where language change is occurring, ethnicity has an effect on the adoption of innovations. Changes originating in the (predominantly Protestant) east of Northern Ireland tend to be adopted primarily by Protestants, whereas…