Haverford College is looking for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of #Linguistics, with a primary specialization in #Sociolinguistics, secondary specialization(s) open -> www.haverford.edu/provost/news...

Tenure-track Assistant Profess...

Ten years ago today, for my #linguistics class at Saint John's, I published this compilation of people saying "theater" in English:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjy40devSco

#TIL the term #yuppie, or at least the "yup" part, is an #acronym for "young #urban #professional". While the sort of people I interview in #rural #Louisiana for my #research are obviously not #yuppies -- I blame my lack of knowledge on the term on that -- a surprising number of these #francophones and #creolophones are white collar #professionals, specifically many are #teachers, #principals, and #lawyers.

Check out our new Episode of the DiscoursNet Podcast #CriticallyLinked about Sibo Rugwiza Kanobana and 'Serving the White Order' –
with Amandine Kingambo, Lou Paquet, and Dounia Sabrallah.

Sibo Rugwiza Kanobana is a contemporary sociolinguist and a lecturer incultural and #PostcolonialStudies at the Open University of the Netherlands.
In today’s episode, we experiment with a slightly new format. Critically
Linked has 3 wonderful guests – Amandine Kingambo, Lou Paquet, Dounia
Sabrallah – all of them Bachelor students from UCLouvain Saint-Louis
Bruxelles coordinated by Prof. Thomas Jacobs. Amandine, Lou, and Dounia willbe hosting this edition of the podcast with a conversation about Sibo Rugwiza Kanobana’s thesis “Serving the White Order. Making Bilingual Security Workers in #Brussels.

https://funkwhale.it/library/tracks/17987/ #Sociolinguistics #DiscourseStudies

https://www.joshmcneill.com/en/2025/08/what-is-a-creole-anyway/

A few years ago I designed a #sociolinguistics activity for students based on Purnell et al.'s (1999) and Baugh's (2015) findings on #linguisticprofiling. Today I wanted to make sure it was still a relevant issue for them to discuss, and Kurinec & Weaver (2021) and K. E. Wright (2023) suggest that it still very much is. Fortunate for lesson planning, unfortunate for the world.

Been seeing this linguistic tic more and more in the past decade or so: the use of a sort of grandiose "you" instead of "I" in this context. I first noticed it in interviews in sports and financial reporting, but I'm now seeing it everywhere. Even Bernie Sanders. #linguistics #sociolinguistics

This week I'm at the 20th Historical #Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN) #conference in Bristol. I was first in Bristol 20 years ago for the Language History from Below conference, at which we founded #HiSoN (though not during the Sherry Reception, as is sometimes claimed). My colleagues Nils Langer, Wim Vandenbussche and Stephan Elspaß did all the work. Though my research interests have developed in a different direction, I am very impressed by how the conference has flourished!

Spotted a (exaggerated?) representation of the #Southernvowelshift in a #HauntofFear issue c1950s: "can't" as [keɪnt] rather than [kænt].

Our next Open #DiscourseNet Seminar Seminar is going to be tomorrow,
7th March 2025, 1–2 pm (London Time).

Gertrude Grumah (University of Essex) will present a sociolinguistic study of
Mampuli-English Codeswitching in Nalerigu, #Ghana.

For more information see: https://discourseanalysis.net/DN/seminars/OpenDNLondon #DiscourseAnalysis #DiscourseStudies #Sociolinguistics

Another fun #citationhole today: Susberry (2004) claimed that #antimiscegenation #laws were passed in #Louisiana after the #CivilWar. She cited Dubois & Melançon (2000) for this. However, the latter only talked about a CAMPAIGN to outlaw #miscegenation, thus quoting a news article that they said was from "Le Moniteur" that they found in Domínguez (1986). BUT, Domínguez got the quote from Le Carillon, whose name even appears in D&M's translation of the quote.

And another citation hole: Referencing a #discriminatory law aimed at free people of color in #Louisiana, Susberry (2004) cited Gehman (1994) who actually described the law(s) completely differently and cited Schweninger (1989), Blassingame (1973), and Tregle (1992), one of whom may or may not have actually cited the damn law(s) directly.

More on how poor citations can be: Susberry (2004), writing about #Whites and White #Creoles unifying after the #Louisiana Purchase to dominate all people of color, cited G. R. Daniel (1992). That chapter, which was a useful analysis of #race itself, made literally no mention of Louisiana nor Creoles. This is why I'll always be an advocate for regularly citing page numbers regardless if people think that's "grad student style" or not.

Another fun citation hole: in discussing the existence of "cordons bleus" in the plaçage days of #Louisiana, J. Martin (2000) cited Roussève (1937) who cited Embree (1931) who cited literally no one and was certainly not alive early enough to know of them firsthand. Who knows if this group ever existed

An example of frustrating #citations in #academic works on #history: J. Martin (2000) is often cited by #sociolinguists and #sociologists working on #Louisiana and #Creoles. At one point, she discussed the tignon law, (unclearly) citing Roussève (1937), but Roussève cited G. King (1895) who herself cited the ordinance directly. It's like the telephone whisper game, hoping that the info stays intact.

The first #ArtificialFriday of 2025 is happening next week!

Our speakers are Bettina Migge from Dublin, Ireland and Jose Belda Medina from Alicante, Spain.
Bettina will talk about #Sociolinguistics and #Digital and #AI Technologies, while Jose will dive into the topic of how AI might transform #languagelearning.

The colloquium will take place 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟭𝟳𝘁𝗵, 𝟮-𝟰𝗽𝗺 𝗖𝗘𝗧 via Zoom

You can register with Nina Kalwa via email or on our Artificial Friday website
https://artificial-friday.de/en/english/

We are looking to fill a #PhD #position (4 years, 65% FTE) within the CRC "Prominence in #Language" at the University of Cologne. We will investigate the role of gender in prominence hierarchies using quantitative #CorpusLinguistics methods.

Deadline is January 17, details here https://uni.koeln/6MSC9 (and on the entire CRC: https://uni.koeln/66YRZ). #linguistics #sociolinguistics

Strange to not have any #Labov quotes to share that I find poignant despite being the giant of #sociolinguistics and despite how much of his work I've read. He always struck me as a workhorse with a lot of interesting method ideas but not someone terribly concerned with #socialtheory where one's writing might become more touching. His legacy and influence will undoubtedly persist for a very long time still.

"William Labov, known far and wide as one of the most influential linguists of the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away this morning at the age of 97." https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=67399 #sociolinguistics

On learning this, I decided to re-read Labov's short essay "How I got into linguistics, and what I got out of it" (http://danielezrajohnson.com/labov_howigot.pdf). I will be recommending it to my M.A. students who are interested in doing a #PhD in #linguistics.

New in our electronic #collection and available #OpenAccess thanks to the @universityofgroningen OA Book Fund:

Mutual Intelligibility between Closely Related #Languages

https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/94343/1/9783111134697.pdf

A comprehensive study of how closely related languages understand each other, exploring measurement, challenges, and practical implications across linguistic, cultural, and policy domains.