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[Brian MacWhinney]

On 10/20/03 10:48 AM, "Ghimenton Anna" <ghimenton at yahoo.com> wrote:

> DEar Members,
> Could anybody explain to me the difference between BILINGUALISM and
> BILINGUISM? Is there a technical difference between the two terms?
> REgards,
> Anna
>

Dear Anna,
  My understanding is that bilingualism refers to the actual use of two
languages by people and communities, but that bilinguism refers to some
official policy of promoting bilingualism in a given community.  For
example, bilinguism as a policy goal is important in the deaf community in
the USA as a way of expressing interest in promoting competence in both ASL
and English.  A search of bilinguism through Google will reveal lots more on
this, including a few messages from info-childes that use the term!  By the
way, there is even a yahoo newsgroup on bilinguism.

-- Brian MacWhinney