Workshop on Sound Change 5: Sound Changes in Endangered or Small Speech Communities; June 20-22, 2019; Davis, CA

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Language change is inevitable and constant: all spoken languages evolve over time in their fine-grained speech patterns and the sound-to-meaning mapping of words. The study of sound change is important for understanding the mental representations and cognitive mechanisms underlying speech communication. The Workshop on Sound Change will take place at the University of California at Davis, June 20-22, 2019. The meeting will bring together researchers working on sound change who come from a variety of different backgrounds and disciplines to have conversations, integrate their perspectives and insights, and make substantive progress on questions the remain in the field. Potential collaborations and research that emerge from the meeting may offer new insights into the social, cognitive, and linguistic factors at work when a language's sound patterns change over time. As not all speech communities are equal, and the consequences for differences in the make-up and size of a community could impact how sound change occurs in a language. To this end, the workshop will feature a special theme on sound change in endangered and small speech communities. Sound change research, as in most work in phonetics and phonology, has focused on languages that have historically been dominant or where speakers are easily accessible. The dynamics of language endangerment and interaction between small groups of speakers may provide unique opportunities for sound change to take place. Small speech communities have different social factors at work than large communities, leading to the phonetic and cognitive influences to interact and diffuse in different ways when there are fewer agents. How sound change might originate and diffuse in speech communities of different sizes is poorly understood. Furthermore, endangered and small languages are often heavily influenced by other languages and cultures, making sound change more likely. In order to make useful models and predictions about when and how sound change will occur, we need to explore these patterns in diverse speech communities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.