This volume contains the proceedings of the symposium on African language, culture and society held at Ohio State University. Six of the papers deal with the related issues of language reform and language planning, including such aspects as the choice of national and official languages. They include both general proposals for theoretical models as well as specific proposals for particular linguistic situations. Topics covered in the 12 papers in the second part of the volume include co-variation in social and linguistic patterns, an overview of creole speech communities and the typologies proposed for their description, the encoding of cultural perspectives in linguistic patterns and the importance of understanding these patterns for education, and the role of language in literature, with particular attention to the writings of African authors writing in European languages. The conference program and addresses of contributors are appended. (Author/CLK)