Date:  Mon, 23 Jan 1995 23:04:25 -0500

From:  "Peter L. Patrick" <PPATRICK[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUVAX.BITNET>

Subject: Re: TV and dialect



Jeff Allx%`.en writes asserting that American TV English has had a

great effect on loanword integration into Gullah, Louisiana Cajun and

Creole French, and the receding French Creole of St. Lucia.

    (On the latter, I haven't yet been to St. Lucia-- though I

hope to in '96 for the Society of Caribbean Linguistics conference!--

but if it's like the rest of the caribbean, they probably also have

British TV and local TV in various Standard and mesolectal Englishes.)

    All these places are in contact with majorities of English

speakers on a daily basis. Jeff, why do you think any loanword

integration from English is due to TV, rather than to normal face-to-

face language contact with speakers of English? I don't understand.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but there's lots of evidence for

transmission by contact, and I don't know of any for transmission by

TV alone (maybe TV rarely occurs without a supporting community of

speakers of its variety).

    --peter patrick