Defines and traces the history of diglossia, and offers an extensive bibliography on the subject. The need for an overall integration of research within the socioevolutionary context of diglossia is highlighted. (32 references) (LT)

A theory that the consonant system of Chipewyan has been reduced from 39 to 16 segments, as influenced by Cree, was based on an incoherent and indiscriminate admixture of variable data; instead, there is evidence of intralinguistic divergence, not interlinguistic convergence, because the observed changes are those frequently observed in other…