It has usually been assumed that the modern Arabic dialects are on the whole lineal descendants of Classical Arabic or of a variety very similar to this. Stated differently, this assumption holds that apart from borrowings and innovations the linguistic substance of the modern dialects is a direct continuation of an earlier stage of Arabic substantially identical with the Classical Arabic of the grammarians, with only a few isolated instances in which one or more of the modern dialects seem to preserve archaisms antedating the codification of the Classical language. Until clear contradictory evidence is produced, this assumption will have to stand as the most reasonable working hypothesis. The purpose of the present study is to offer one important refinement to this hypothesis, namely that most modern Arabic dialects descend from the earlier language through a form of Arabic, called here the koine, which was not identical with any of the earlier dialects and which differed in many significant respects from Classical Arabic but was used side by side with the Classical language during early centuries of the Muslim era.

[The phonological analysis of Saigon Vietnamese presents problems of indeterminacy, multiple analyses, and asymmetry. The phonetic structure of the dialect is described here in detail and certain of these problems are discussed. Special attention is called to the general problem of asymmetry in phonological analysis, and a principle involving it is proposed for general theory. A specific procedure is outlined for applying the principle, and the application is illustrated by examples from the description of Saigonese.]

Serbo-Croatian is an Indo-European language, and like many languages of that family possesses a complex system of nominal and verbal inflection. The forms of the standard language have been fairly well described, though not from the structural point of view, in a number of handbooks. As a source of forms I have used August Leskien's Serbokroatische Grammatik (Heidelberg, 1914); but I have checked all forms against the speech of at least one informant—my wife, a native speaker of the Serbian regional standard, born in Valjevo, long resident in Belgrade.

The question of the nonuniqueness of phonemic solutions, first raised by Chao in 1934, remains one of the most intriguing problems of structural linguistics. It is therefore of interest to note that the attempts of various American and European linguists to arrive at a structural analysis of the nonsyllabic phonemes of present-day standard Bulgarian have resulted in three significantly different descriptions of the system in question. The phonemic inventory most frequently advocated, henceforth referred to as system I, includes (1) a series of hard, nonpalatalized, or plain consonants /p b t d k g f v s z x c m n r l/; (2) a series of corresponding soft, palatalized, or sharp consonants /p' b' t' d' k' g' f' v' s' z' x' c' m' n' r' 1'/; and (3) a glide or nonconsonantal-nonvocalic phoneme /j/. System II, less frequently encountered, admits only groups (1) and (3) as independent phonemes, and regards the palatalized consonants as clusters of consonant plus /j/. System III recognizes the phonemic status of (1) and (2), but considers [j] an allophone of unstressed /i/.

This paper has a threefold purpose. It aims first to call attention to shortcomings in the existing theory of internal reconstruction. Second, it makes suggestions for a revised theory. And finally, it illustrates and amplifies these suggestions by applying them to the reconstruction of pre-Seneca from the synchronic data available in my Seneca morphology.

Methods of modifying the normal patterns of speech for purposes of entertainment or concealment are perhaps universal. Where such practices abound in both type and incidence, one may assume that considerable cultural importance is associated with the contexts in which they occur, and that the statuses of the most frequent users are also of particular significance. The following is a brief analysis of the linguistic and sociocultural aspects of such a situation recently noted in the Philippines among the Hanunóo.

Since the publication of the last paper in this series, Hokan study has been enriched by a major new source of data, William Bright's The Karok language (UCPL 13; Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1957). As one of the objectives of this series is to test the Shastan hypothesis (i.e. the notion that Achumawi and Atsugewi have a closer relationship to Shasta than they have to any other Hokan languages except each other and are therefore to be classified with Shasta in a Shastan subgroup of Hokan), comparisons outside the ‘Shastan subgroup’ are mandatory. For though comparison of Palaihnihan (Achumawi and Atsugewi) with Shasta can show, as PS I and PS II do fairly conclusively, that the Palaihnihan languages are more closely related to each other than either is to Shasta, they do not rule out the possibility of Palaihnihan being a subgroup within Shastan. To rule out this possibility and to test the Shastan hypothesis, it is necessary to have reference to non-‘Shastan’ Hokan languages. Unfortunately for the purposes of the present paper, Karok has only two dorsal phonemes—the stop /k/ and the spirant /x/, in contrast with Achumawi . The consequences of these differences in phonemic diversity are discussed below, after presentation of the Palaihnihan materials basic to this series.