This study investigates how the process of structural convergence common in many bilingual communities (cf. Clyne 1987, 1994) interacts with the process of code-switching. Data on Serbian/English code-switching indicate that there the process of structural convergence is reshaping the Serbian variety spoken by bilingual speakers. This process is reflected in code-switching situations in the form of what Myers-Scotton 1993b calls “matrix language” (ML) turnover: the matrix language in code-switched utterances can only be assigned if one considers the process of structural convergence occurring in Serbian. These data indicate that code-switched utterances in which the diachronic ML turnover is under-way present a very useful source of information not only for the analysis of code-switching, but also for the analysis of language change under conditions of contact. The findings of this study strongly suggest that any theoretical model of code-switching which aims at achieving universality needs also to take into consideration the results of the structural convergence that affects linguistic varieties in many code-switching bilingual communities. (Structural convergence and language change, Serbian, code-switching, Matrix Language Frame model)

The Sámi (formerly called Lapps) are the indigenous people of Arctic Scandinavia and northwest Russia. Legislation giving major language and cultural rights to Norway's Sámi people was enacted in 1992. As an introduction to discussion of the impact of the Sámi Language Act on Norwegian education, this article begins with an outline of the schooling system in Norway. Its review of the act itself covers the following topics: the Sámi culture and the Sámi languages, social and political problems that affect the Sámi, the place of the Sámi languages in education, and recent educational changes that flow from the Sámi Language Act. Three research questions, covering the practice and organization of bilingual aboriginal education in Norway, are then addressed at length. The article concludes by drawing emancipatory implications from the Sámi experience for members of aboriginal cultures and for the future of aboriginal education generally. (Power and culture, Sámi culture, minority education, native language education, bilingual education)

This article provides a descriptive analysis of the entire system of address forms in Yoruba, a Defoid language of the Niger-Congo phylum, spoken principally in the western part of Nigeria and to a lesser extent in the Republics of Benin and Togo. With data from short radio and TV plays, unobtrusive observation of actual usage, and introspection, it was discovered that the choices made by interlocutors are guided by the perceived social relationship that exists between them. The principal indices of this among the Yoruba are age, social status, and kinship. Nevertheless, certain peculiarities are noticeable. For instance, the dichotomy of power vs. solidarity (Brown & Gilman 1960) becomes blurred with respect to Yoruba kinship terms of address; thus solidarity does not necessarily imply equality among the Yoruba. (Politeness, address, kinship, Africa, Yoruba)

This article describes a secret language called “Gypsy” spoken in an English-derived creole speech community on the Caribbean island of Bastimentos in Panama. Data from this cryptolect are used as a means to examine language variation on the island. This article highlights the fact that a range of English-derived creole varieties exists in Bastimentos, lacking the effects of a lexically related metropolitan variety in the same geographical area. (Creole, cryptolect, Panama, secret language, speech play, variation)