This paper aims to identify and analyze geographical patterns of (morpho)syntactic variation in traditional Austrian dialects using non-aggregative dialectometric methods (factor analysis). Based on a comprehensive dialect corpus obtained by direct dialect interviews including 163 speakers from 40 locations throughout Austria, our analyses of 79 variants of 30 (morpho)syntactic variables not only show geographical patterns in Austria’s dialects, but also address the linguistic basis of the geographical structures revealed. In particular, the results show that variables at the morphology–syntax interface contribute most to geographical structuring. We argue that this finding is related to structural conditions of these variables and the historical development of the respective variants.

Maps are important in many areas of linguistics, especially dialectology, sociolinguistics, typology, and historical linguistics, including for visualizing regional patterns in the distribution of linguistic features and varieties of language. In this hands-on tutorial, we introduce map making for linguistics using R and the popular package ggplot2. We walk the reader through the process of making maps using both typological data, based on the World Atlas of Language Structures, and dialect data, based on large corpora of language data collected from German and American social media platforms. This tutorial is intended to be of use to anyone interested in making maps of linguistic data, and more widely to anyone wanting to learn about mapping in R.

To investigate the under-researched topic of sign language vitality, the authors evaluate a set of sociolinguistic data gathered as part of the Sign Hub project. The subproject Atlas aimed to create an interactive online tool for researchers, teachers, and interpreters to compare sign languages’ sociolinguistic, grammatical, lexical, and phonological features. This paper presents an analysis of ten sign languages, i.e. the first batch of socio-historical data submitted to the subproject. The authors find that nearly all of them have been subjected to oppression, and their documentation is limited. Their vitality is supported by good awareness among the hearing community and use within educational institutions, national deaf associations and local deaf clubs. Vitality is threatened by low provision of sign language media and a lack of interpreter training. The paper concludes that the Atlas has considerable utility in research on sign language vitality, which may be augmented by adding further diachronic components.

This paper examines folk perceptions of language in the Greater Boston Area. In particular, it seeks to understand which areas are associated with a “Boston” accent, and whether associations are changing given recent shifts in ethnic and economic demographics. A total of 111 Greater Boston residents completed a survey and map task asking what constitutes a “Boston” accent, who has one, and in which areas one can be heard. Results show that the majority of participants perceive the neighborhood of South Boston to be the geographic epicenter of the “Boston” accent, and generally associate accents with historically White working-class areas, despite sometimes changing demographics within them. There is also evidence that participant ethnic background may play a role in perceptions of speech in some areas, with White men less likely to choose South Boston, widely viewed as gentrifying, as accented, and Black and Asian participants less likely to choose the increasingly ethnically diverse neighborhood of North Dorchester. These results demonstrate the importance of eliciting folk perceptions from residents of color to obtain a fuller picture of the language attitudes in a given community.

This study explores some consonantal and vowel features of the variety of American English spoken in Dearborn, MI. Recent research shows that Dearborners recognize their English variety as distinct. Past studies on Dearborn English have primarily focused on vowel patterns, while some emerging sociolinguistic work has paid attention to the consonantal features. The present study contributes to this emerging literature by presenting a preliminary analysis of some consonantal features of Dearborn English in addition to a description of its vowel pattern. To do so, the speech of MENA Americans in Dearborn has been compared to that of non-Dearborner MENA Americans from the US Upper Midwest. The results show that pre-vocalic word-final /t/ glottalization, convergence of voice onset time of lenis and fortis members of bilabial and velar stops, shorter Euclidean distances for vowels, and a vowel pattern not consistent with local patterns could be parts of an ethnolinguistic repertoire for Dearborners.