Language variation and change
Exploring linguistic variation and change, with a particular focus on quantitative models
Our research interests cover many areas of linguistics, including phonetics, historical phonology, historical syntax, syntactic variation, dialectology, sociolinguistics, and computational linguistics.
The group is inherently interdisciplinary and invites membership from any interested researchers in or around the University of Edinburgh community. Our members are interested in patterns of variability at all levels of linguistic structure. We share an interest in both synchronic and diachronic variation, with the goal of developing empirical models of variation and change.
People
Staff who work in this area include:
| Research interests | |
| Dr Claire Cowie |
World Englishes; language contact; morphological productivity; pragmatics |
| Dr Josef Fruehwald | Language variation and change; sociolinguistics; phonology; phonetics; quantitative methods |
| Dr Lauren Hall-Lew | Sociolinguistics; sociophonetics; phonetic methods; English variation and change; language and ethnicity; language and tourism |
| Dr Patrick Honeybone | Historical phonology; phonological theory; northern Englishes |
| Dr Pavel Iosad | Theoretical phonology; phonological interfaces; historical phonology; Celtic languages; Germanic languages |
| Dr James Kirby | Phonetics and phonology; sound change; tone and register; language and music; languages of Southeast Asia |
| Dr Warren Maguire | Dialectology; varieties of English and Scots; phonetic and phonological variation and change |
| Dr Mits Ota | First and second language acquisition; phonology |
| Dr Graeme Trousdale | Historical linguisitcs; language variation and change |
Postgraduate study
PhD and MSc by Research programmes
For more information about postgraduate study in language variation and change, contact Dr Lauren Hall-Lew.
Meetings
Meetings are usually held on (certain) Wednesdays from 1:10pm - 2pm. This year, semester 1 meetings will be held in room 1.20, Dugald Stewart Building, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AD. Semester 2 meetings will be in Seminar Room G.13 – Doorway 4, Medical School (Old Medical School), Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG. Forthcoming events will be listed on the LEL events page. For more information about this year's meetings, contact Victoria Dickson or visit the research seminar pages.