580 California St., Suite 400
San Francisco, CA, 94104
Key research themes
1. How do environmental, social, and geographical factors drive dialect divergence and convergence?
This theme investigates the relative roles of ecological, geographical, and social variables in shaping the divergence and convergence of dialects, focusing on how isolation or contact influenced by these factors affects linguistic variation over time. Understanding these dynamics is crucial to explain the emergence of dialect boundaries, patterns of linguistic diversity, and processes of dialect leveling or shift.
Key finding: This study quantitatively modeled linguistic divergence in relation to geographical distance, cultural, environmental, and administrative factors. It found that geographical distance and administrative history mainly... Read more
Key finding: Investigating dialect diffusion in Iran, this study found that face-to-face contact between minority dialect speakers and the dominant Persian language results in dialect convergence via external influence, where phonetic,... Read more
Key finding: Using dialectometric data from 86 Dutch villages, the study demonstrated ongoing dialect convergence whereby traditional local dialects are becoming less differentiated and are fusing into larger regiolects or koines. It... Read more
Key finding: This longitudinal study compared speakers born in 1880-1908 and those born in 1970-94 along the North-Midland dialect boundary in Ohio. It found that the original dialect boundary remains robustly differentiated despite the... Read more
Key finding: This phonological study documented convergence of Minia Arabic vowel systems toward Cairene Arabic, driven predominantly by younger female speakers. Factors promoting convergence include economic opportunities, media... Read more
2. What linguistic and social mechanisms govern the acquisition and persistence of dialect features during dialect contact and second dialect acquisition?
This theme focuses on the phonological and syntactic processes underlying dialect accommodation, acquisition, and change, especially among mobile speakers who move between dialect regions. Investigating how social identity, linguistic representations, and usage patterns influence which features are adopted or resisted provides crucial insight into mechanisms of dialect leveling, convergence, or divergence.
Key finding: This sociolinguistic study of Canadian English speakers who moved to New York showed selective acquisition of New York City phonological features (cot/caught distinction and /ɑU/ raising). The findings favor a usage-based... Read more
Key finding: Beyond ecological factors, the paper proposes that cultural adaptations to environmental heterogeneity lead to intergroup isolation, which, combined with communication constraints, shape dialect differentiation. This... Read more
Key finding: This syntactic study examines the structure, constraints, and dialectal variation of 'split questions' in multiple Spanish dialects. It highlights how syntactic mechanisms such as movement and variation in question tags... Read more
3. How can computational and quantitative methods advance the identification, clustering, and modeling of dialect variation and transitions?
This theme explores the application of computational techniques such as spectral graph partitioning, dialectometry, GIScience methods, and syntactic classification to objectively cluster dialects, identify key linguistic features distinguishing dialect groups, and model the spatial-temporal dynamics of dialect boundaries and transitions. Advancements in these approaches provide a more precise, data-driven understanding of dialect continua and language change.
Key finding: Applying hierarchical spectral partitioning to Dutch dialect data enabled simultaneous clustering of dialect varieties and identification of the most important sound correspondences defining clusters. This hierarchical... Read more
Key finding: Using GIScience methods like trend surface and regression analyses on Swiss German syntactic data, the study quantitatively modeled gradual versus crisp transitions (‘isoglosses’) between dialect variants. It proposed... Read more
Key finding: By combining grammar induction and text classification on web and social media corpora, this study identified syntactic features predictive of 14 national English dialects globally. It introduced data-driven language mapping... Read more
Key finding: This volume presents advances in dialectometry and dialectology showing novel quantitative methodologies such as fuzzy dialect areas, factor analysis for latent dialect structures, and computational measures to identify... Read more
Key finding: This typological study surveyed grammatical variables across 42 languages to investigate whether form, order, or omission variables are more likely to distinguish dialects. It found that certain grammatical structures are... Read more