This study sheds light on the socio-economic factors determining the (re)location of sociolinguistic prestige in postcolonial environments. It uses the case of Namibia, an ethnolinguistically diverse African country that replaced Afrikaans -- an established lingua franca -- with English as its official language to weaken the hold of the formerly…

Most sociolinguistic studies rely on apparent time, cross-sectional methods to analyze language change. On the basis of apparent time data, sociolinguists have hypothesized that cultural processes of lifespan change create predictable cycles of linguistic behavior in which adolescents lead in the use of vernacular variants and advance sound change…

Explores the distribution of /ai/ monophthongization in African-American and European-American speakers in Memphis, Tennessee. Presents evidence of extensive glide weakening in the African-American community in Memphis and compares it to the degree and contexts of glide weakening in the European-American community. (Author/VWL)

The characteristics of several nonstandard dialects of American English are presented in this paper in the form of an inventory of features. It has been compiled with the recognition that nonstandard dialects are governed by pronunciation and grammatical rules and that within the broad category of nonstandard dialects, regional and ethnic…

Originally appeared in Workpapers: Teaching English as a Second Language," Volume 5 (June 1971), Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles, California. (VM)

To determine whether black children who speak a nonstandard dialect have difficulty in spelling because of the dialect features of their vocabulary, spelling tests were administered to 66 black English-speaking children in the first, second, and third grades. The results indicated that children who spoke black dialect exhibited spelling…

The recent work by sociolinguists is more accurate for consideration of urban dialects than is the analysis provided in the "Linguistic Atlas" materials. The sociolinguists' work shows that the use of nonstandard phonological and grammatical features varies according to one's socioeconomic status, ethnic background, speech context, age,…

The teacher working with second-dialect students requires knowledge of the phonology used by his students to deal, not primarily with their pronunciation problems, but, with their reading and writing problems. In language classrooms, priority should be given to the aspects of language used by children that identify them as nonstandard speakers.…

A collection of essays on linguistic variation in English that distinguishes communities and social groups from one another includes: "Standard English: Biography of a Symbol" (Shirley Brice Heath); "The Rise of Standard English" (Margaret Shaklee); "English Orthography" (Wayne O'Neil); "How Pablo Says 'Love' and…

Many black students speak a nonprestige dialect called black English, which places them at a disadvantage academically and socially. This monograph describes the features of black English, defines its use, discusses several theories of its origin, and offers some methods for teaching black students standard spoken usage as another style of speech.…

In recent years a considerable amount of interest has developed in language variability and in the educational problems connected with it. This volume is a report of linguistic research on the variable language behavior in a community of American English speakers, specifically on some aspects of tense marking in Black English. The following topics…

This issue includes the following articles: "Towards a Sociolinguistics of Style" (Alan Bell, Gary Johnson); "Engendering Identities: Pronoun Selection as an Indicator of Salient Intergroup Identities" (Miriam Meyerhoff); "A Majority Sound Change in a Minority Community" (Carmen Fought); "Addressing the Actuation…

Some differences between Standard English (SE) and "Black English" (BE) have important consequences in communication of messages. The authors cite as an example the "habitual" function of the finite verb "be" which has no equivalent in SE. They point out that "simplification" of the English of the Bible may result in a "translation" which is…