Sociophonetics: Studying the Social Meanings of Fine Phonetic Variation

21-22 octobre 2026

Erez LEVON

Prof. Erez Levon, Université de Berne

Prof. Marie-Hélène Côté, Université de Lausanne

Prof. Sophie Holmes-Elliott, Queen Mary University of London

Prof. Sam Kirkham, University of Lancaster

Prof. Nicolai Pharao, University of Copenhagen

Research in sociolinguistics and dialectology has long been concerned with phonetic variability, investigating how alternate realizations of phonetic variables are linked to social, cultural, and regional identities. While studies have traditionally used auditory methods to investigate phonetic variability between higher-order variants (e.g., alveolar vs. velar -ing in English [Tagliamonte 2004; Schleef et al. 2011] or palatal vs. velar ich/ach in Standard Swiss German [Bülow et al. 2021]), researchers have increasingly shifted to using acoustic methods to examine the fine phonetic details of variation, demonstrating that subtle sub-phonemic contrasts in the realization of vowels (e.g., Holmes-Elliott & Levon 2024), consonants (Kirkham 2017), and prosody (Kristiansen et al. 2013) can carry relevant sociolinguistic meaning (see Strelluf 2023 for a recent overview). 

The growing emphasis on sociophonetic methods has enhanced the empirical and explanatory power of contemporary sociolinguistics. But it also has increased the instrumental and acoustic phonetic knowledge that researchers must acquire. To do so, it is imperative for PhD students to engage with researchers grounded in phonetics, enabling students to deepen their understanding of speech production and perception and to cultivate familiarity with the methodological tools required. 

This two-day CUSO workshop will focus on training participants in state-of-the-art methodologies for acoustic sociophonetic analysis. Three international scholars have been invited who are experts in processing and analyzing different types of phonetic data. Each day is devoted to a different domain of phonetic variation: Prof. Sophie Holmes-Elliott (Queen Mary University of London) will present methods for investigating vowels and vowel spaces. Prof. Sam Kirkham (University of Lancaster) will focus on variation in liquids (rhotics and laterals). Prof. Nicolai Pharao (University of Copenhagen) will present methods for examining prosody.  PhD students working on phonetic variation will be invited to present their ongoing research.

Universität Bern

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