Four points in Ladefoged's discussion note in "Language" (v68 March 1992) are examined: arguments based on political considerations; the cost of giving up a native language to join a dominant language; the responsibility of a linguist in supporting the loss of a particular language; and the task of the linguist. (one reference) (LB)

Outlines three features that render creoles synchronically distinguishable from other languages, all three clear results of a break in transmission followed by a development period too brief for the traits to be undone as they have been in older languages. Shows that an expanded data set reveals flaws in the socio-historical argumentation behind…

The syntax of the relative clause in the Saraswat Brahmin dialect of Konkani, an Indo-Aryan language, has been Dravidianized because of the impact of the Dravidian Kannada language, operating through bilingual speakers. The Konkani-Kannada bilingual situation is described and an explanatory account of the syntactic change is given. (Author/CLK)