News

Two (former) Berkeley affiliates presented at the International Conference on Historical Linguistics at Heidelberg University. Johanna Nichols presented on "Reconstructing prehistoric sociolinguistics from modern grammatical evidence" and Anna Berge (PhD 1997, now a professor at the University of

The 2023-2024 colloquium series begins on Monday, September 18, with a talk by Wesley Y. Leonard (UC Riverside), rescheduled from last fall. The talk will take place in Dwinelle 370 and synchronously via Zoom (passcode: lxcolloq) from 3:10-5pm. The title of the talk is "Engaging Native American Protocols for Decolonizing Linguistics Pedagogy," and the abstract is as follows:

Although there is an increasing focus on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in the field of Linguistics, members of Native American and other Indigenous communities remain underrepresented—and often report feeling unwelcome. A recurring concern is that Linguistics, despite a strong disciplinary interest in Indigenous languages, is not accountable to Indigenous histories, protocols, and ways of experiencing language. A wider issue is that colonization is endemic, and academic norms (including whose worldviews guide curriculum) have developed accordingly. For both points, a question emerges about what linguists can or should do in response.

In this colloquium, I examine this question through the norms of how Linguistics is or could be taught, focusing in particular on introductory courses—those in which students are most likely to learn about the field for the first time—and how these courses can engage Native American worldviews and protocols, such as a focus on relationships (relationality) and protocols of honoring those relationships (relational accountability). I argue that doing so when framing core concepts, selecting and presenting examples, and discussing social issues such as language endangerment, naturally supports JEDI for members of Native American and other Indigenous communities, while also improving linguistics pedagogy in general.

Darya Kavitskaya published an article with co-author Florian Wandl "On the reconstruction of contrastive secondary palatalization in Common Slavic" in the Journal of Historical Linguistics. Congrats, Dasha!

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

• Phorum - Friday, Aug 25 - Dwinelle 1303 - 4-5pm: Round robin
• Sociolinguistics Lab at Berkeley (SLAB) - Tuesday, Aug 29 - Dwinelle 5125 - 3:30-4:30pm: Post-summer check-in; snacks provided. Email Julianne Kapner (julianne_kapner@berkeley.edu) or Marguerite Morlan (marguerite_morlan@berkeley.edu) to be added to the bCourses page.
• Fieldwork Forum - Wednesday, Aug 30 - Dwinelle 1303 and Zoom (password: fforum) - 3-4:30pm: Welcome back summer round robin
• Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday, Sep 1 - Dwinelle 1303 - 3-4pm: Round robin
• Phorum - Friday, Sep 1 - Dwinelle 1303 - 4-5pm: Dakota Robinson (UC Berkeley): Sociophonetic variation in Breton rhotics