When acquiring the English plural, children correctly produce plural words long before they develop an understanding of morphological structure. When acquiring Sesotho noun prefixes, children are aware of the multiple constraints governing variation from a young age. Both of these cases raise questions about the Shin and Miller (2022) account of…

This article presents an adaptation of a position paper written by Da Pidgin Coup, a group of concerned faculty and students in the Department of Second Language Studies (SLS). In fall 1999, the group became concerned about a statement made by the chairman of the Board of Education implicating Pidgin in the poor results of the students of Hawai'i…

Demonstrates that two Tungusic languages, Evenki and Oroqen, that have long been treated as a single language for classification purposes, are better treated as distinct linguistic varieties. Fundamental questions are raised about the current classification of Tungusic languages and a renewed examination is suggested of the role of dialect…

Reexamines the issue of Spanish nonverbal word stress, illustrates two basic generalizations about primary word stress, develops the conclusion that penultimate stress is unmarked, examines the relationship between Latin stress and its Spanish descendant, and contrasts the stress systems of Latin and Spanish. (32 references) (GLR)

The allophonic variation in the quality of the resonant consonants of two Missouri River (Siouan) languages, Crow and Hidatsa, has not previously been studied adequately. Evidence is provided in this paper that /m/ and /n/ are the best representations for the underlying resonants in Hidatsa as well as Crow and Proto-Missouri River. Establishing…

The usefulness of classifications within and comparisons among languages as a means of discovering the commonalities of human language is discussed. Metalinguistics offers not only the potential for analyzing the specifics of each language, but also the tools for teaching across languages. (MSE)

A variable rule of /s/ deletion that operates in many varieties of Spanish is examined. A descriptive apparatus is posited that may be helpful in systematizing quantitative data from studies of phonological variability. Empirical data from the speech of informants show that ordering relationships among constraints on variable phonological rules…

Discusses the Kingsman Report (Department of Education and Science, London) on teaching English in Britain, and considers its relevance for teaching English in other countries. The many kinds of English, the labels given to them, and the centrality of the standard language are briefly reviewed. (JL)

Introduces this special issue of the journal and presents results from comparative research into the principles constraining learner varieties (interlanguages) in use. Articles analyze the oral production of complex verbal tasks in second language Dutch, English, French, German, and Italian. (Author/VWL)

Among the 29 articles collected here are the following: (1) "On Markedness and Sociolinguistic Variation" (Amastae); (2) "On the Form of Bilingual Grammars: The Phonological Component" (Elerick); (3) "On Negation in Comparative Constructions" (Fries); (4) "Class by Value System: Implications for Bilingual…

Argues that instruments normally applied to the analysis of discourse, and that originate in the Western tradition of analyzing language, must be used with extreme caution in analyzing new varieties of English. To substantiate this claim, the article uses as an example the recent work on the emergence of Batswana English. (Author/JL)

Safder Alladina's analysis of the position of South Asian languages in Britain leaves much to be desired, concerning itself largely with Urdu, Hindi to a lesser extent, and hardly at all with Bengali, Gujarati, and Panjabi. The problems and solutions of devising policies appropriate to these languages need to be discussed in greater detail. (CB)

The issue of language variation is examined from three perspectives: the political view of nonnative varieties as examples of power; the anthropological view of language as an aspect of culture; and the pedagogical view of English as a static entity across cultures. Studies of teacher-training programs and teacher-trainee attitudes are included.…

Educational programs for teachers of English as a Second Language must devote more attention to differences between the standard varieties of American and British English, with instruction focusing on the major orthographic, morphological, syntactic, collocational, and lexical differences. (CB)