A paper modeling Tuscan dialects and a discussion of Universal Grammar's role in child-language acquisition are two of several highlights from the September issue of Language, just released online. The table of contents, and abstracts for each article, are freely available at Project MUSE; LSA members and other subscribers can sign in to read the full articles.

One article featured in the September issue is "Lexical differences between Tuscan dialects and standard Italian: Accounting for geographic and sociodemographic variation using generalized additive mixed modeling", by Martijn Wieling, Simonetta Montemagni, John Nerbonne, and R. Harald Baayen. Wieling et al. use generalized additive mixed modeling to predict the lexical dialect forms a given speaker will use based on both social and geographical factors. Read more about the Wieling et al. study in the LSA's news release.

The September issue also marks the launch of our new online section, "Perspectives", devoted to providing commentary and discussion on featured linguistic articles. Our inaugural issue of Perspectives features Ben Ambridge, Julian M. Pine, and Elena V. M. Lieven's "Child language acquisition: Why universal grammar doesn’t help", with six written responses.

The September issue of Language includes 24 articles, reports and reviews on linguistic topics. A subscription to Language is available to all members of the Linguistic Society of America; visit our membership website to learn more about how to join.