In my research I examine the linguistic practices of Moroccans in Spain, many of whom speak Moroccan Arabic as well as Modern Standard Arabic, Tamazight, French, English and Spanish at varying levels of proficiency. As part of my research, I conducted a 10-month linguistic ethnography. I was able to rely on my native English and near-native…

Many languages make a T/V distinction when addressing an interlocutor, and Basque also has two main levels of formality: "zuka" (formal) and "hika" (informal). The peculiarity of the Basque informal form of address "hika" is that its verbal morphology varies depending on the addressee's gender. The use of…

Predicting the outcome of language contact situations is complicated by the fact that the primary agents of linguistic change--individual speakers--are unpredictable (van Coetsem, 2000; Thomason, 2001). My dissertation examines the variety of Spanish spoken in Galicia, Spain, where individual language choices are often motivated not by utility but…

Immigrant integration in nation states increasingly focuses on the importance of learning the national state language. This is evidenced by increased emphasis on rigorous language testing and tighter citizenship regulations. This paper analyses immigrant integration in two sub-state contexts, Galicia and Wales, where presence of a national…

Nominal and pronominal address forms, which play a central role in the construction of interpersonal relations (cf. Bargiela et al. 2002; Clyne et al. 2009), have been the focus of attention in different linguistics subfields for several decades now. Less attention, however, has been paid to these forms from a variational pragmatics (Schneider and…

Across the centuries, the question of the origin of language has captivated the human imagination. Many theories have been proposed to address fundamental questions such as: Where do languages come from? How do they evolve? What are the societal drivers of this change? Historically, one of the biggest challenges in addressing these questions has…

This study examines the manifestations of purity and authenticity in 47 Basque bilinguals' reactions to code-switching. The respondents listened to two speech extracts with code-switching, filled in a short questionnaire and talked about the extracts in small groups. These conversations were then recorded. The respondents' beliefs can be…

It is generally believed that study abroad (SA) is the most efficient and successful way to acquire proficiency in a second language (L2). SA is a crucial component of students' second language acquisition (SLA) process, for it puts them in situations in which they can use the language on a daily basis and interact with native speakers. More than…

In some contact situations between Spanish and English there is an acceleration of the process of the extension of "estar" that may be due to lack of access to the formal written standard, features of English in particular or general processes of simplification that result from the cognitive demands of bilingualism (Silva-Corvalan,…

Articles in this issue focus on language evolution, variation, and heterogeneity. The following are English translations of the French article titles appearing in the issue: "Irregular Phonetic Development Due to Frequency; Regional Traits in Proto-Romance"; "Linguistic Evolution and Evolution of Perspective in the Comparative…

Papers on language difficulties encountered by migrant workers' children include: "Anomie in Bicultural Education" (Hugo Baetens Beardsmore); "An Investigation into Bilingual Education for Children from Favoured Socio-Economic Backgrounds" (Hugo Baetens Beardsmore); "Orientations of Foreign Children Relating to Placement…