36.3215, Calls: Syn-Thèses - "Special Issue: Standard Languages and Geographical Varieties of Europe at the Crossroads of Contact Linguistics and Historical Dialectology" (Jrnl)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3215. Thu Oct 23 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.3215, Calls: Syn-Thèses - "Special Issue: Standard Languages and Geographical Varieties of Europe at the Crossroads of Contact Linguistics and Historical Dialectology" (Jrnl)

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Date: 22-Oct-2025
From: Evangelos Kourdis [ekourdis at frl.auth.gr]
Subject: Syn-Thèses - "Special Issue: Standard Languages and Geographical Varieties of Europe at the Crossroads of Contact Linguistics and Historical Dialectology" (Jrnl)


Journal: Syn-Thèses
Issue: Standard Languages and Geographical Varieties of Europe at the
Crossroads of Contact Linguistics and Historical Dialectology
Call Deadline: 31-May-2026

In general approaches to language contact and contact-induced change,
the subject of research is typically the linguistic consequences of
interaction between communities speaking different languages (Goebl et
al. 1996, Thomason 2001, Myers-Scotton 2002, Winford 2003, Siemund &
Kintana 2008, Matras 2009, Hickey 2010, a.m.o.). Contact between
geographical varieties of a language is usually analyzed under the
same framework as with autonomous languages. One difference often
highlighted is that borrowing between dialects can extend to features
that are highly marked or highly integrated into a structure (e.g., in
inflectional morphology), the borrowability of which is otherwise very
low (cf. Thomason 2001:77). When distinct languages come into contact,
it is easy to categorize any changes as either internal or external
but between geographical dialects it is much more difficult to
determine what is contact-induced and what is shared heritage (Epps et
al. 2013). The problem stems from earlier models of historical
linguistics (cf. Hickey 2018), which assumed that two linguistic
systems are clearly separated from their common ancestor and
subsequently evolve independently. However, varieties belonging to the
same geographical area may influence each other, often for centuries.
About forty years ago, Trudgill (1986) brought contact dialectology to
the forefront and highlighted the role of linguistic accommodation as
a mechanism for the spread of innovations among dialects. Moreover,
experts in the field point out that in essence linguistic innovation
diffusion should be conceptualized as dialect contact (e.g., Britain
2010). Contact between dialects leads to the emergence of mixed,
interdialectal varieties and eventually the formation of new dialects
through processes of simplification, reduction, hybridization, and
reallocation of existing variants (Trudgill 1986, Trudgill 2004,
Britain 2018).
Although significant progress has been made in the study of dialect
contact and its outcomes for several European languages in recent
years (mainly English, as well as French and German), the field
remains largely uncharted in the case of others (e.g., Greek, Italian,
Slavic, Albanian etc.).
The forthcoming issue of the journal Syn-Thèses is designed to fill
this gap by taking stock of less studied dialects in the light of
contact linguistics and contact dialectology, and to set the relevant
agenda with an eye towards inter-disciplinary contributions and
cross-fertilization. The proposed topics include (but are not limited
to) the following:
 - How can the study of contacts of dialects among themselves and with
other languages contribute to the theoretical discussion about the
degree of borrowability of structural features in relation to criteria
such as typological distance, markedness, and level of integration?
 - What methodological tools can we apply or develop to better define
the distinction between convergence features and common archaisms in
non-standard geographical varieties?
 - What new insights in the field of contact dialectology are provided
by the study of diachronic and diatopic variation in the historical
record of a language? Case studies on varieties spoken across
geographical and social space at specific points in history (and the
transitions between these points) are particularly welcome.
 - Is there a coherent way to describe the dialect ecology that
emerges after large-scale population movements? One such example is
the population exchange of 1922 between Turkey and Greece which led to
the transplantation of Asia Minor Greek to areas of Northern Greece
and its coexistence with native dialects and Standard Modern Greek.
This event alone set in motion a series of linguistic processes that
have not yet been fully understood and remain to be studied
(koineization processes and interdialectal features, formation of new
dialects, dialect extinction etc.).
 - What does the current decline of many regional varieties around
Europe teach us within the framework of language /dialect death
theory? (see Cambel & Muntzel 1989, Sasse 1992 e.g., Schilling-Estes &
Wolfram 1999, Malikouti-Drachman 2000)
Please submit your manuscript to both guest editors, Assimakis
Fliatouras, Democritus University of Thrace (afliatouras at yahoo.com),
and Nikos Liosis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
(nikosliosis at yahoo.gr).
Language: French, English, Greek
Editorial standards:
https://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/syn-theses/about/submissions#authorGuidelines
Submission Timeline:
 - 27 October - 31 May 2026: Submission of papers and start of the
reviewing procedure
 - 1 September 2026: Receipt of reviews; notification of acceptance
and distribution to authors for revision
 - 30 November 2026: Receipt of revised papers- 31 December 2026:
Completion of editorial review of the full volume (Liosis &
Fliatouras)
 - Spring 2027: publication.
References:
Britain, D. 2010. Contact and dialectology. In: R. Hickey (ed.) The
handbook of language contact. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 208–229.
Britain, D. 2018. Dialect Contact and New Dialect Formation. In: Ch.
Boberg, J. Nerbonne, D. Watt (eds) The Handbook of Dialectology.
Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 143–158.
Campbell, L. & M. Muntzel. 1989. The structural consequences of
language death. In Ν. Dorian (ed.) Investigating obsolescence. Studies
in language contraction and death. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 181–196.
Epps, P. et al. 2013. Introduction: Contact among genetically related
languages. Journal of Language Contact 6,2: 209-219.
Goebl, H., P. Nelde, Z. Stary, and W. Wölck, eds. 1996.
Kontaktlinguistik/Contact linguistics. Handbücher zur sprachund
Kommunikationswissenschaft. Vols. 12.1 and 12.2. Berlin: de Gruyter
Mouton.
Hickey, R., ed. 2010. The handbook of language contact. Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell.
Hickey, R., 2018. Dialectology, Philology, and Historical Linguistics.
In: Ch. Boberg, J. Nerbonne, D. Watt (eds) The Handbook of
Dialectology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 23–38.
Matras, Y. 2009. Language contact. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ.
Press.
Malikouti-Drachman, A. 2000. Συρρίκνωση διαλεκτικών συστημάτων. In: H
ελληνική γλώσσα και οι διάλεκτοί της. Αθήνα: Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας,
23–28.
Myers-Scotton, C. 2002. Contact linguistics. Oxford: Oxford Univ.
Press.
Sasse, H.-J. 1992. Theory of language death. In: M. Brenzinger (ed.)
Language death: Factual and theoretical explorations with special
reference to East Africa. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 7–30.
Thomason, S. G. 2001. Language contact: An introduction. Washington,
DC: Georgetown Univ. Press
Trudgill, P. 1986. Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell.
Trudgill, P. 2004. New Dialect Formation: The Inevitability of
Colonial Englishes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Winford, D. 2003. An introduction to contact linguistics. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Schilling-Estes, N. & W. Wolfram. 1999. Alternative Models of Dialect
Death: Dissipation and Concentration. Language 75:486–521.
Siemund P. & N. Kintana. 2008. Language Contact and Contact Languages.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Linguistic Field(s): Discipline of Linguistics
                     Historical Linguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)
                     French (fra)
                     Modern Greek (1453-) (ell)




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