FOCUS ON THE USA -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- INTRODUCTION: RESEARCHTRENDSIN THE STUDY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH -- References -- PINEY WOODS SOUTHERN -- References -- FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Probability mapping -- 3. Lexical variation in colonial cities -- 4. Conclusion -- References -- THE COMPARABILITY OF LINGUISTIC ATLAS RECORDS: THE CASE OF LANCS AND LAGS -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Method -- 3. Lexical results -- 4. Phonological results -- 5. Conclusion -- References -- TERMSUSED FOR CHILDREN'S GAMES: COMPARING DARE'S FINDINGS WITH USAGE OF TODAY'S YOUTH -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Methodology -- 3. Findings -- 4. Summary and reasons for change -- THE DIALECTS OF THE MIDDLE WEST -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Northern, Midland, North Midland, South Midland -- 3. Pronunciation: Sociolinguistic methods in a geographical context -- 4. Foreign language influences -- References -- DIALECT CHANGE AND MAINTENANCE IN A POST-INSULAR ISLAND COMMUNITY -- 1. Introduction -- 2. An ethnographic perspective on dialect study -- 3. The Ocracoke "Brogue" and other American English dialects -- 4. The case of Ocracoke /ay/: Phonetic and phonological issues -- 5. Phonetic implausibility vs. social significance -- 6. Weren't regularization -- 7. Applying the principle of linguistic gratuity in Ocracoke -- References -- A COMPARISON OF VARIATION PATTERNS OF VARIABLES AMONG SIXTH-GRADERS IN AN OHIO COMMUNITY -- 1. Influences on dialectal change -- 1.1. The survey -- 1.2. The community -- 2. Methods -- 2.1. Interviewing -- 2.2. Measurement of linguistic variables -- 2.3. Independent variables -- 2.4. Measurement of correlation -- 3. Analyses of the linguistic variables -- 3.1. /o/ -- 3.2. /æ/ -- 3.3. /ai/ -- 3.4. Upgliding in dog and similar words -- 3.5. The merger of pre-nasal /I/ and /ul/.

3.6. Mergers involving /ol/, /ull/, and /ul/ -- 3.7. Don't and home -- 3.8. Roof -- 3.9. Hostile -- 3.10. Lightning bug -- 3.11. Teeter-totter -- 4. Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix -- References -- PERCEPTIONS WITHIN A VARIABLE PARADIGM: BLACK AND WHITE RACIAL DETECTION AND IDENTIFICATIONBASED ON SPEECH* -- 1.Introduction -- 2. Theoretical foundations -- 3. Procedures -- 3.1. Speech selection -- 3.2. The Linguistic Sensitivity Test -- 3.3. Data specification -- 4. Results -- 4.1. Possible interpretations -- 4.2. Native evaluations and second language evaluations -- 4.3 Native judges ' evaluations based on social background -- 5. Implications for research on housing discrimination -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- SEX-BASED DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE CHOICE IN AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOOD IN DETROIT -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The inner city area study -- 3. Theoretical considerations -- 4. The Vernacular Language Project (VLP) -- 5. Language and gender -- 6. Language and gender in the 60+ age group -- References -- THE ENGLISH COMPETENCE OF CUBAN EXILES: THE CASE OF NOUN PLURALIZATION -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Informant selection and data gathering -- 3. Data analysis -- 4. Results and discussion -- 5. Conclusions -- References -- WHAT WAS VERBAL -S IN 19TH-CENTURY AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH? -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Evidence for language contact from written documents -- 3. Verbal -s marking -- 4. Discussion -- 5. Conclusions -- References -- THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN ENGLISHES:SOME QUESTIONS FROM A CREOLE GENESIS PERSPECTIVE -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Why are WAVEs not creoles? -- 3. The genesis of AAE -- 3.1. A critique of the literature -- 3.2. What history suggests: A competition-of-feature hypothesis -- 4. The development of WAVEs: A creole perspective -- 5. Conclusions -- References.

HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY DISTRIBUTION OF DOUBLE MODALS IN ENGLISH -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The distribution of double modals in contemporary AmericanEnglish -- 3. Atlantic Creole sources -- 4. British English sources -- 5. U.S. settlement history -- 6. Spontaneous generation in the south -- 7. Historical grammatical sources -- 8. Summary -- References -- AMERICAN COLLEGE SLANG -- References -- WHERE THE WORST ENGLISH IS SPOKEN -- 1. Quantitative studies -- 1.1 Hand-drawn maps -- 1.2. Correct and pleasant -- 1.3. Degree of difference -- 1.4. Placement of regional voices -- 1.5. Summary of quantitative research -- 2. Conversational evidence -- References -- Addresses of authors -- SUBJECT INDEX.