In this paper we examine the formation over time of a lexical honorific speech register, Tongan lea faka'eiki, or ‘chiefly language’. Use of the comparative historical method enables us to consider honorific register formation within a framework of greater temporal and spatial scope that has been typical for studies of register formation, and to identify some properties of such formation that have not been documented before. Our evidence shows that the higher and lower levels of honorification in this speech register have been formed at different times and through predominantly different etymological processes, even as they draw on the same broader set of word formation processes. In recorded speech, the differences between the sources of the two sub-registers are even more pronounced, preserving and reproducing the historical differences in their formation.*

The multilingualism and patterns of language use in Misión La Paz, Salta Province, Argentina are described and analyzed. Three indigenous languages, Chorote, Nivaclé, and Wichí, are spoken here, but interlocutors in conversations usually do not speak the same language to one another. There is extensive linguistic exogamy, and husbands and wives typically speak different languages to one another. Individuals identify with one language, speak it to all others, and claim only to understand but not to speak the other languages spoken to them. Children in the same family very often identify with and thus speak different languages from one another. This situation is examined and explanations are offered, with comparisons to similar situations elsewhere. The pattern of language choice and multilingual use in this case is arguably unique, with implications for several general claims about language contact and multilingualism.

Salsa, a global urban music and dance phenomenon, is an interesting example for the emergence of transnational cultural spheres. Salsa has its roots in the Americas and in many Salsa communities outside of Latin America, the Spanish language is seen as the authentic means of expression. However, attitudes to multilingualism can differ strongly from Salsa community to Salsa community.

In this paper, the Salsa-scene of Sydney is introduced with its various stances towards multilingualism. These are connected to different styles of the dance, where one style is practiced in English only, while dancers of another style are often bilingual speakers of Spanish and English. Monolingualism and multilingualism here mediate the affiliation to different local scenes. Simultaneously, both language ideologies relate to different global discourses of competitive and cosmopolitan culture. It will be asked whether the introduced language ideologies challenge traditional frameworks of society and reified discursive concepts of language. (Multilingualism – Transnationalism – Cosmopolitanism)*

As a linguistic curiosity, Chinglish has long fascinated native speakers of English, prompting numerous studies that analyze its form with a view towards either eliminating it or accepting it as a viable Standard English variant. In this article, I examine how various social groups involved in foreign language education in China, including Chinese students, foreign teachers and linguists, enregister Chinglish as a linguistic variety. I argue that Chinglish is not distinguished by the presence or absence of any particular linguistic feature, but a label produced in the intersubjective engagements between language learners and native speakers. Chinglish is structured by and reinforces the relations of expertise within the Chinese English language speech community, thus representing larger anxieties about nationalism and modernization in a global context.*