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…

Discusses grammaticalization of "laik" in Tok Pisin, meaning "want/like/desire" (from English "like") and "klostu," meaning "near" (from English "close to") as markers of proximative. Shows although "klostu" was more generally a feature of Pacific Pidgin English and began to…

Shows that the high-ranking syllable contact constraint is the driving force behind the well-known nasalization and lateralization phenomena in Korean. Develops an optimality-theoretic analysis of Korean nasalization and lateralization in which SyllCon is an undominated constraint. (Author/VWL)

Discusses what it takes to acquire language, and suggests that second language acquisition can occur without living in the country where the language is spoken and without formal instruction. The crucial variables appear to be comprehensible input and having a good relationship with speakers of the language. Provides an example of a Mexican…

Four phoneme-detection studies with native speakers of Dutch and German tested the conclusion from recent research that spoken language processing is inhibited by violation of obligatory assimilation processes in the listeners' native language. (Author/VWL)

Reports on a study into the acquisition of Welsh and English phonology in Welsh-English bilingual children. Concentrates on the acquisition of the rhotic consonants--the trilled -r of Welsh and the approximant -r of English. (Author/VWL)

Examines linguistics during the Third Reich in Nazi Germany. Discusses Nazi linguistics or linguistics in Nazism, Yiddish studies and the horror of assimilation, and remarks on the relevance of historical approaches in linguistics in the field of academic education. (Author/VWL)

Investigates three categories of politeness formulas in northern Omani Arabic under the headings of greeting and parting routines, congratulating, and condoling. (Author/VWL)

Four lexical features of a noun are relevant to agreement: semantic conditions on reference; person, number, and gender features of the referential index; concord features; and declension class. These features are correlated by a chain of binary constraints. Patterns of mixed agreement result from individual violations to the constraints. Three…

Looks at two languages, one well known and the other less so, that have undergone changes in word order. Data for the two languages in question--English and Irish--are compared. Parallels in the internal mechanisms suggested for the attested word order changes in both Old English and Old Irish are examined critically. (Author/VWL)

Recent changes in oath-taking in Kirundi-Kinyarwanda are presented and interpreted. Shows that new oath variants create quantitative and qualitative variability in form, significance, and use in the conceptualization and meaning of oaths. Such changes were initiated largely by European Christian missionaries who arrived in Burundi and Rwanda at…

Focuses on the Xhosa, the illiterate indigenous people in the De Aar-region of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Describes the experiences and happenings around illiteracy and literacy training in the Nonzwakazi Township of De Aar in the Northern Cape. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education) (Author/VWL)

Globalization has led to unprecedented interest in expanding foreign language instruction in U.S. schools, particularly at grade levels where traditionally it has not been an option. Languages that previously have been rarely taught, such as Chinese, are frequently the choice of new programs at every level in the K-12 range. As No Child Left…

This monograph examines the language planning situation in Sri Lanka with particular emphasis on the planning of Sinhala as an official language of the country. It explores the historical, social, ideological and political processes, changes in language policy decisions, as well as the complexities of the language policy and planning situation in…

From a legal and institutional point of view, the current situation of the different languages in Spain has a double basis: the fact that the Spanish Constitution acknowledges the country's multilingual and multicultural character, and the country's organisation into Autonomous Communities. Such a constitutional framework has made it possible for…