4.1 Other Things to Consider

• Mertz's study of `folk-Whorfian' attitudes towards languages other than English in the American context;

• Studies of diglossic situations of all sorts; typically the diglossic language lacks `prestige'; why then does it persist? Are there other issues that ought to be studied, such as the emotional content of non-standard speech, seen as more authentic, a marker of solidarity, the language of the soul, etc.?

• Need to look at religion and attitudes toward language, especially languages with `sacred' texts, `holy' forms, long textual traditions (`religions of the book'):

  As set down in the Koran, the sacred book of Islam is dogmatically held to be the uncreated attribute of God, coexistent with him.

  (Umberto Sceratto, Monuments of Civilization: Islam

  In the beginning there was the word; and the word was with God, and the word was God.

  (New Testament, Gospel of John)

• Other cultures (cf. Schiffman 1996, Ch. 2).

• Other approaches to attitude as a useless sack of opinions etc.