Surveys the linguistic attitudes and cultural identity of Cajun speakers stratified by age and sex from four communities in Louisiana. Findings reveal that Cajun identity rests fundamentally in the linguistic ability of the speakers and that the criteria established has created considerable tension within the cultural Cajun community. (32…

Assesses the relative roles played by men and women in the development of New Zealand English over the past 50 years, with particular attention paid to vowel shifting. Results indicate that women lead in new and dynamic changes, but lag behind men in the use of variables representing older changes. (71 references) (Author/CK)

Examines the nature of language diversity in the small, isolated community of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, where a lone African American family has resided for over 130 years. (57 references) (Author/CK)

This study examined attitudes toward nonnative English speakers in the United States. Examined reactions of university students to Korean-accented English. A verbal guise task was used to elicit evaluations of Korean English with an additional component that asks listeners to attempt to identify the ethnicity and native speaker status of the…

Illustrates the impromptu use of German among adolescents in a multilingual school in inner London, where the aesthetics of performance play a significant role in the negotiation of identities and in the repositioning of an official code at school. (Author/VWL)

Investigates phonological variation and change in southern and northern spoken Dutch (spoken in Northern Flanders and the Netherlands). The study examines changes in progress from 1935-93 using a combination of insight and techniques from historical linguistics and sociolinguistics. Results indicate that the southern variety remained stable while…