Language and Society Scotland

Arabic Linguistics Arabic Linguistics is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on all aspects of the scientific study of Arabic in all its varieties. The focus may be on one or more varieties, t...

Volume 1, Issue 2 of Arabic Linguistics is now published online. This is a special issue with selected papers from the 37th Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics (ASAL37), held in New York City in February 2024. Guest editors: Reem Khamis & Mira Goral.

www.jbe-platform.com/content/jour...

Save the date #ICPLA2027 - 14th to 16th June 2027 @unistrathclyde.bsky.social, Glasgow UK.

Find out more here: www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/p...

Super happy to see our paper (w/ @riannawalcott.bsky.social) in Journal of Sociolinguistics: "‘Gen Z Language? Y'all Mean AAVE’: The Appropriation of African American Vernacular English as ‘TikTok Language’ 🧵

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Gaelic Week is under way! There are lots of special events in Edinburgh, including
Cruinn Còmhla Community Day, Saturday 28 February, 10am-4pm (ionaddhuneideann.org)
Discussion about the role of Gaelic media, Thurs 26th, 530pm (www.nls.uk/whats-on/gae...)
snagde.com/events/
@sngaidhlig.bsky.social

I'm thrilled to have contributed my research to this new report for the Scottish government on Multilingualism and New Scots Refugee Integration, calling for a renewed national commitment to supporting multilingualism for integration, education and community wellbeing: www.gla.ac.uk/news/headlin...

One of my former Sociolinguistics students (now a PG student at St Andrews) is co-organizing a student conference on 'Voice'. Submission details below!

N.B. Student travel from Edinburgh to St Andrews will be reimbursed by the organisers!

If you are an English language teacher in Bangladesh, India, or Sri Lanka, this British Council scholarship for *20 fully-funded* spaces on our MSc TESOL (Online) may be of interest. Information webinar on 5 March – please spread the word!
#BritishCouncilScholarsELT #TeamStirling

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 We’re hosting the Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference in Edinburgh this year!

If you work on queer linguistics topics, please submit an abstract, we’d love to see you there!

Conference dates: 2nd-4th September

Submission deadline: 28th March

CfP: lavlang32.ppls.ed.ac.uk?page_id=231

Grants 2026 LingComm Grants – Small Grants for Communicating Linguistics to Wider Audiences We want to see more linguistics in the world!  The 2026 LingComm Grants are $300 (USD) to support lin…

Are you an early career researcher interested in communicating linguistics to broader audiences?

Consider applying for a @lingcomm.org grant!
Deadline April 30, via @lingthusiasm.com

lingcomm.org/grants/

Really happy to have my work featured again in this amazing resource pack. Projects like this are how we get linguistics into the classroom, and show students that linguistics/English language is more than applying Grice's maxims to a passage from Hamlet*.

'gen z slang' 😬 If there was ever a time for our paper to come out, it's now...

We submitted the revisions in December, here's hoping it's out soon: "Ilbury, C. & R. Walcott. ‘Gen Z language? Y’all mean AAVE’: The appropriation of AAVE as ‘TikTok language’".

Last Friday I had the special honour of delivering two talks to the Sociolinguistics and Phonetics Laboratories over at the University of Washington. Thank you very much to Alicia Beckford Wassink for inviting me to give these talks, as well as everyone that attended. (1)

Sociophonetics This book provides a critical overview of sociophonetic research and considers how the findings of this field illuminate and problematize a range of central issues in phonetics and phonology. The core...

Available today on Google Books! "Sociophonetics: Implications for Phonological and Phonetic Theory" edited by me and @jennycz.bsky.social

books.google.co.uk/books?id=T6m...

Scots is often wrapped up in classism and labelled as 'weird' or 'uneducated', but by every standard it is its own language with its own grammar, syntax and words, and should be respected as such, writes Emma Grae ✍️

Read more: www.thenational.scot/commen...

Find out about our University's scholarships for 2026 entry which are open to School of Modern Languages' PhD applicants. Apply by 21 January 2026: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/modern-langu...

Professor Lauren Hall-Lew Inaugural Lecture Professor Lauren Hall-Lew's Inaugural Lecture from 25th September 2024. Sociophonetic indexicality as a window onto language and society.

My inaugural lecture is now online 🥰
media.ed.ac.uk/media/Profes...

#sociophonetics #sociolinguistics #linguistics #phonetics #semiotics #Peirce #indexicality #social #meaning #research #academic #academia #lecture #Arizona #SanFrancisco #Gaelic #Gàidhlig #Scots #English #professor #babyphotos

PGR Event – ‘Method Matters’ The Forum for Research on Languages in Scotland and Ulster (FRLSU) invites postgraduate research students (PGR/PhD) working on language-focused projects related to Scotland and/or Ulster …

Are you a Postgraduate Researcher (PGR/PhD) working on language-focused projects related to Scotland and/or Ulster? If so, there's an online event on 25th February centred on methodological approaches and innovations. For more details, and to express your interest: frlsu.org/pgr-event-me...

If we lose our languages, do we lose ourselves?

Join Prof Alison Phipps FRSE, Dr Teresa Garrido-Tamayo, Dr Nadeen Purna, and Dr Hyab Yohannes as they explore how the languages spoken by both New Scots and long-established communities change as their sense of belonging shifts over time.

Increased funding for Gaelic in the new Scottish budget - a 5.2% increase, up to £32.4 million. (As the capital element (the Gaelic Capital Fund) has been frozen, the increase in 'fiscal resource' is actually 6.2%).

The volume includes chapters by me & Lauren, Meredith Tamminga, @kbmcgowan.bsky.social, @abbyjwalker.bsky.social and Teresa Pratt; if you're a socio-curious phonologist/phonetician (or a phon-curious sociolinguist), this book was written for you!

The CfPs for LavLang32 at Edinburgh is now OPEN! A reminder of our stellar lineup:

• Dr. Nikki Lane (Duke)
• Dr. Kevin Guyan (UoE)
• Prof. Erez Levon (Bern)
• Dr. Stamatina Katsiveli (American College of Greece)
• Dr. Eddie Ungless (UoE)

Submit a paper here: lavlang32.ppls.ed.ac.uk?page_id=231

blue and green cover of the book "Sociophonetics: Implications for Phonological and Phonetic Theory", edited by Jennifer Nycz and Lauren Hall-Lew, published with Oxford as part of the Oxford Surveys in Phonology and Phonetics

📚 Sociophonetics: Implications for Phonological and Phonetic Theory (co-edited by me and @lhlew.bsky.social) is now available online at Oxford Academic! (print copies coming end of January) academic.oup.com/book/61815

A bit late, but here’s a photo of me introducing the first session of the @langsocscot.bsky.social event in Edinburgh in November. Photo stolen from @drsarahhopkyns.bsky.social’s LinkedIn (sorry, Sarah, and thanks!)
@sta-modlangs.bsky.social

5 year postdoc position here at Edinburgh with my colleague Bert Remijsen 🐦🐦

Why languages provision in Scottish schools needs urgent review The number of school leavers in Scotland with a basic level of competence in a foreign language is plummeting, says Lorna Milne, who sets out what should happen now

Why languages provision in Scottish schools needs urgent review
www.tes.com/magazine/ana...

Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic More than 1,000 words used as far back as 325BC to be collected for insight into past linguistic landscape

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Great to host this event! Really interesting interdisciplinary discussions on 'language and AI'.

Keep an eye out for the details of our next @langsocscot.bsky.social meeting!

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the University of Edinburgh on Friday for lively discussions on the linguistic, economic and social dynamics of AI. Planning will begin for our next event before too long, so please tag or message us with ideas for your preferred topic or location!

Events 2025 28 NOV The University of Edinburgh • 1.50, EFI • Register Network meeting: Language & AI As language technologies become increasingly central to social life, they offer powerful tools for …

And later, the next Language & Society Scotland (LASS) meeting on Language and AI: lasscotland.wordpress.com/events/

Looking forward to hearing about the amazing work being done on these topics.

Researching Language and Digital Communication Brynn Quick speaks with Dr Christian Ilbury about his new book, Researching Language and Digital Communication: A Student Guide, published by Routledge. The book is an introduction to research on l…

@christianilbury.bsky.social is another recent addition to the Starter Pack, and joined @brynnquick.bsky.social for an interview earlier this year to discuss his new book, Researching Language and Digital Communication: A Student Guide. A great discussion!
www.languageonthemove.com/researching-...