Using Biber's multidimensional analysis (1998) to examine a large corpus of world English literatures written in Indian, West African, British, Anglo-American, and Mexican-American varieties of English, examines whether quantitative analyses can also be insightful and useful in the examination of world Englishes literatures in expanding…

Investigated African American Vernacular English dialect features in the midwestern community of Davenport, Iowa, and compared them to those reported by Pollock and Berni (1997) for Memphis, Tennessee--specifically productions of vocalic and postvocalic /r/ across African-American speakers from Davenport and Memphis. (Author/VWL)

Describes a project whose purpose is to set up a computerized database of bilingual texts to be used by researchers in the field of language interaction (i.e., codeswitching, borrowing, and other outcomes of contact between varieties). Current work includes adaptation of the CHILDES system to take account of the different needs of researchers in…

Literature regarding Southwest Spanish suggests gender agreement with nouns is being lost. A study of recorded speech from 11 Spanish speakers in San Antonio (Texas) shows gender agreement is neither random nor largely nonstandard, suggesting gender marking is a rule still observed in this dialect. (Author/MSE)

Examines linguistic variation on an Internet Relay Chat channel with respect to the hypothesis, based on the model of Milroy and Milroy (1992) that standard variants tend to be associated with weak social network ties, while vernacular variants are associated with strong network ties. (Author/VWL)

Studies palatization gestures in the production of /t/ and /d/ in standard Belgium French through the use of electropalatography. The articulatory results are compared with an acoustic study of the affricated realization of these consonants when followed by /i/, /y/, /j/, and /h/ in Quebec French. (Author/VWL)

Provides acoustic evidence that in the last 50 years New Zealand English (NZE) has undergone a substantial vowel shift. Two sets of data are studied: the Otago corpus, recorded in 1995, and the Mobile Unit Corpus, recorded in 1948. (Author/VWL)

Examines an area of sociolinguistic methodology that thus far has received relatively little theoretical attention: the composition and analysis of orthographic transcriptions of non-standard speech. Addresses the following aspects: linguistic/semiotic properties of orthographic transcription, and the different functions of orthographic writing…

By combining features of matched guise tests with sociolinguistic interviewing and oral performance, this study investigates the social meanings carried by non-standard orthographies. Participant evaluations of the personas showed that people connected orthography to social identities. Specifically, results found people uncritically and…

Demonstrates the importance of investigating language variation and change both within and across ethnic groups, especially those that have been relatively insular historically. Focus is on the variable patterning of /ay/ in the variety of English spoken by the Lumbee Indians in tri-ethic Robeson County, North Carolina. (Author/VWL)

Considers challenges to and prospects for English in South Africa at the turn of the century. Argues that as a result of its social history and its status as a global language, English has a secure place in South Africa. (Author/VWL)

Illustrates substrate reinforcement in the development of three current dialects of Melanesian Pidgin. Evidence of earlier variability is presented and the sociolinguistic conditions that later led to greater stability are described. Grammatical features that differentiate the dialects are examined. For each feature, it is shown that at least two…

Collected naturalistic data from six children age 8-9 talking with their relatives and friends. Focuses on directives and requests used by the children and their interlocutors in informal conversations. (Author/VWL)

Based on the results of three variationist studies on personal pronouns used in Montreal French, shows how real-time data can shed light on apparent time interpretation and increase understanding of morphosyntactic changes. Longitudinal data for a 24-year period from three corpora of spoken French are used to discuss cases of variation.…

People's attitude towards using the Pidgin language from Hawaii is described. The way in which Pidgin is changing is analyzed with the help of Pidgin linguistics students from University Hawaii.