LINGUIST List 22.5120 Mon Dec 19 2011 Calls: Sociolinguistics, Phonetics/Germany Editor for this issue: Alison Zaharee <alisonlinguistlist.org> LINGUIST is pleased to announce the launch of an exciting new feature: Easy Abstracts! Easy Abs is a free abstract submission and review facility designed to help conference organizers and reviewers accept and process abstracts online. Just go to: http://www.linguistlist.org/confcustom, and begin your conference customization process today! With Easy Abstracts, submission and review will be as easy as 1-2-3! Directory         1.     Sabine Zerbian , Sociophonetic Research in Emerging Varieties Message 1: Sociophonetic Research in Emerging Varieties Date: 19-Dec-2011 From: Sabine Zerbian <szerbianuni-potsdam.de> Subject: Sociophonetic Research in Emerging Varieties E-mail this message to a friend Full Title: Sociophonetic Research in Emerging Varieties Date: 22-Aug-2012 - 24-Aug-2012 Location: Berlin, Germany Contact Person: Sabine Zerbian Meeting Email: < click here to access email > Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics; Sociolinguistics Call Deadline: 31-Jan-2012 Meeting Description: Cities have always been the meeting place for speakers of different language backgrounds and ethnicities. Consequently, different recognizable group dialects of any given language emerge more easily and quicker in these places than elsewhere. Emerging varieties are often defined along ethnic lines, e.g. British Asian English, Black South African English, or Türkendeutsch. Similarly, in the paradigm of World Englishes, emerging recognizable group dialects of English are termed according to their country of origin, e.g. Singapore English or Nigerian English, or the language background of the speakers, e.g. Bengali English, Tswana English. It is a common explanation for all these new varieties that they differ from the standard language because linguistic characteristics from the 'mother tongue' have been transferred in a process of language acquisition that has or had taken place at some stage. As a consequence, the linguistic features of these ethnically or regionally delineated varieties are often described with reference to the dominant language of an earlier generation, e.g. the language of the immigrating generation. Next to language transfer also other reasons can account for differences from a standard language. E.g., it is well-known that language contact opens up the opportunity of linguistic innovation, i.e. the emergence of new features in a language. Alternatively, one could argue that unmarked or universal structures emerge in language contact. Last but not least, sociolinguistic research has long shown that language varies in a society even if speakers share a common language background. This thematic session of the Sociolinguistics Symposium 2012 aims at bringing together researchers who are interested in sociophonetic variation in emerging contact varieties that involves ethnicity and/or language background as a variable. The aim of the thematic session is both to report on observable linguistic variation and to try and disentangle processes of language transfer, innovation, and sociolinguistic variation. Call for Papers: Contributions are welcome which concentrate on methodological issues in this area of research, or contributions which critically investigate if it is ethnicity and/or language background which are the determining variable for a given aspect of linguistic variation, or if other sociolinguistic variables, such as social class, are taking over. Abstract length: maximum 500 words Deadline for abstract submission: January 31, 2012 Abstract submission is available via the conference website: http://www.sociolinguistics-symposium-2012.de/ To submit a proposal for this and other sessions, the procedure is to create a ConfTool account (https://www.conftool.pro/sociolinguistics-symposium-2012/), then select the desired thematic session and submit an abstract no longer than 500 words (including references) by January 31, 2012. Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 19-Dec-2011       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.