influence of russian on AE

[Sonja L Launspach]

I have a student in my introductory language studies class who is claiming
that Russian is an important language which has influenced the dialects of
the West coast--Pacific northwest and Alaska. My sense is that its
influence would be limited--but I don't know for sure. Can anyone give me
some idea, so I can respond to this student who is phrasing this lack as a
serious flaw in the reading. For him the ommision of Russian calls into
question the validity of the entire chapter on history of dialects--the
reading is from Walt and Natalie's book on American English

Thanks
Sonja Launspach
_______________________________________________________________________
Sonja Launspach
Assistant Professor Linguistics
Dept.of English & Philosophy
Idaho State University
Pocatello, ID 83209
208-236-2478
fax:208-236-4472
email: sllauns at isu.edu