Major background sociocultural factors in the revival of Hebrew as Israel's vernacular during the period 1890-1916 are examined. These include communicative, national-political, and religioeducational factors leading to an unprecedented community acceptance of an unfamiliar spoken language and its use by new generations of native speakers. (MSE)

Describes two major events--mass migration to New Caledonia in the 1950s and the conversion from a protectorate to a French overseas territory in 1961--that have confronted Wallis and Futuna (Central Polynesia) with the same sociolinguistic problems that have beset other Pacific islands for decades. (Author/CB)