The evidence of a general achievement gap, and more specifically, a reading gap between African American students and White students is a well documented and alarming phenomenon (Chatterji, 2006; Darling-Hammond, 2004, 2007; Darling-Hammond, Holtzman, Gatlin & Heilig, 2005; Fishback & Baskin, 1991; Jencks & Phillips, 1998; Haycock, 2001;…

This paper presents a single-subject case study illustrating the need to closely examine effects of dialect from syllable position on l-colouring, and the effects of domain-initial strengthening in General American English. Most investigators report lighter /l/ tokens in syllable onsets and darker tokens in coda positions in isolated words. The…

Discusses the Third Dialect (Labov 1991, 1994), offering the first systematic variationist analysis of speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with particular focus on three phonological processes. Argues that Veatch's (1991) model of English syllable structure provides a unified account of these seemingly unrelated phonological changes in Pittsburgh.…

Bullock and Gerfen show that two of the last speakers of French in Frenchville, Pennsylvania, systematically replace the French front mid round vowel (in words like "deux, neuf") with the rhoticized schwa of American English, their dominant language. As the authors argue, it is unlikely that this sound change would have arisen in the…

Purpose: This study examined the relation between African American preschoolers' use of African American English (AAE) and their language and emergent literacy skills in an effort to better understand the perplexing and persistent difficulties many African American children experience learning to read proficiently. Method: African American…

Swahili, a Bantu language, is a lingua franca serving an estimated 45 million inhabitants in Africa as "the language of culture, education, and communication." The author, who has spent 35 years in East Africa, notes the regional variations in Swahili, and the standardization which is taking place throughout East Africa. The Institute o…

Compared spelling of children who speak General American English and those who speak Southern British English. Found that spelling errors of children with spelling ages of 6 to 7.5 reflected characteristics of their dialect, and that at older spelling ages, British children made overgeneralization errors reflecting their dialect. Concluded that…

Raised, nasalized variants of /ae/ in such words as hat and back in the speech of many Illinoisans are found to correlate with the size of the community in which the speaker was raised. Generally, the higher the variants, the more urban the speaker was raised. (Author/RM)

This study compared phonological features of African American English speakers at 3 grade levels: preschool, elementary school, and middle school. The phonological features exhibited at all 3 grade levels were quite similar. The frequency of usage, determined by the percentage of speakers exhibiting the feature and by the mean number of…

The author reviews the lexical, grammatical, and phonological criteria claimed in support of the hypothesis that there is a "Midland" dialect. He finds the claim to be "an unsubstantiable artifact of word geography" and discusses the inadequacies of this method. While he is "not questioning the existence of a subdialect corresponding to what has…

The 190 titles described here have been selected to provide a convenient reference guide for students of language who are concerned with regional and social variations in Southern speech. The area covered is not only that of the eleven states of the historical South, but Kentucky, Oklahoma, and West Virginia as well. The only specific aim of the…

In a comparative study of American English speakers and British English speakers, it was examined whether segmental effects can be used in speech production as cues to syntactic structure. American speakers could use the segmental cues in syntax perception, while British speakers could not. Speakers of British English who were long-term residents…

Part of Lexicography and Dialect Geography, Festgabe for Hans Kurath''. (DD)

Presents a linguistic description of American Sign Language (ASL) phonology, morphology, and syntax. (AM)

Native speakers of a language are often unable to consciously perceive, and have altered neural responses to, phonemic contrasts not present in their language. This study examined whether speakers of dialects of the same language with different phoneme inventories also show measurably different neural responses to contrasts not present in their…