37.1446, Confs: Prosodic Systems Across Languages and Their Varieties (France)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1446. Wed Apr 15 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1446, Confs: Prosodic Systems Across Languages and Their Varieties (France)

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Date: 14-Apr-2026
From: Caterina Petrone [caterina.petrone at univ-amu.fr]
Subject: Prosodic Systems Across Languages and Their Varieties


Prosodic Systems Across Languages and Their Varieties

Date: 14-Dec-2026 - 16-Dec-2026
Location: Aix-en-Provence, France

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Phonetics; Phonology;
Pragmatics; Sociolinguistics

Submission Deadline: 17-May-2026

We are pleased to announce the Workshop “Prosodic systems across
languages and their varieties” as part of the 3rd edition of the
conference “Languages and Language at the Crossroads of Disciplines”
(LLcD), organized within the CNRS Thematic Network LLcD. The
conference will take place at Aix-Marseille University from 14 to 16
December 2026 (https://llcd2026.sciencesconf.org).
This workshop will bring together researchers—both within the
French-speaking community and internationally—who investigate prosody
across a wide range of languages and speech varieties. It aims to
foster dialogue among scholars working on cross-linguistic and
cross-variety comparisons. Contributions may focus on well-studied
languages such as English, French, Dutch, and Spanish, as well as less
commonly studied languages, for instance African languages like Bantu
languages (e.g., Shingazidja or Zulu) and Austronesian languages such
as Kanak languages (e.g., Drehu or Paicî). The workshop is expected to
feature around twenty presentations (five oral talks and fifteen
posters), providing a platform for exchange among researchers working
on diverse languages and linguistic contexts. The overarching goal is
to promote cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary discussion on how
prosodic systems are structured, used, and acquired in relation to
social, regional, and interactional variation.
Scope and Motivation:
Although prosodic systems exhibit recurrent structural patterns
(Gussenhoven 2004; Ladd 2008), they are also highly diverse across
languages (Hirst & Di Cristo 1998; Jun 2006, 2012), language varieties
(Armstrong et al. 2022), and social contexts (Cole 2015).
Understanding these systems raises key questions about variability,
representation, and processing. The workshop will bring together data
and analyses from multiple linguistic traditions. It will combine
experimental approaches (see Cole 2015; Wagner & Watson 2010 for
overviews of experimental advances in prosody) with corpus-based
perspectives (see Durand et al. 2009; Durand & Przewozny, 2015 for the
PFC and PAC corpora, respectively) to advance our understanding of
prosodic systems. In particular, it will foster dialogue between
laboratory-based experimental approaches in phonetics and phonology
and descriptive, corpus-oriented studies, promoting iterative feedback
between experimental findings and naturalistic language data. This
integrated approach aims to provide a comprehensive, comparative
understanding of prosodic systems across languages and varieties.
Thematic Domains:
We particularly welcome contributions that address:
 - Rhythmic organization: What are the cross-linguistic differences in
speech timing and coordination, and what new metrics are available to
assess rhythmic similarity and distance between languages?
 - Intonational structure: how tones, pitch accents, and prosodic
hierarchies interact to encode meaning across languages and varieties?
 - Multimodal prosody: How to conceive and model the coordination of
intonation with gesture, gaze, and other visual cues, and how these
multimodal configurations vary across languages, varieties and social
contexts?
 - Developmental aspects: How to study the emergence of prosodic
competence in first and second language acquisition, including the
role of linguistic input, age-related factors, as well as the impact
of learners’ proficiency level and the effects of targeted prosodic
training.
 - Sociophonetic variation: How social, regional, and contextual
factors shape prosodic patterns, and how prosody interacts with
identity, social meaning, and variation across speakers and
communities.
By bringing together French and international scholars, diverse
languages, and complementary methodological approaches, the workshop
aims to promote comparative insight and advance an integrated
understanding of prosodic systems worldwide.
Organization:
The workshop will be conducted in English. It will feature five oral
presentations (20 min + 5 min for questions), each representing one of
the five proposed thematic areas. Posters will complement the five
oral presentations, covering the five thematic areas and providing
additional opportunities to showcase ongoing research and preliminary
results.
Please note that, like the LLcD2026 conference, the workshop will be
held exclusively in person.
Venue:
The workshop will take place at the faculty of Arts of Aix-Marseille
University in Aix-en-Provence, at the Cube, 29 av. Robert Schuman,
13100 Aix-en-Provence, France.
Submission Modalities:
We invite you to submit by May, 17, 2026, an anonymous abstract of no
more than 500 words (including examples but excluding references)
which clearly outlines the research questions, approach, methodology,
data, and results. Submissions will be made via EasyChair and will
follow the same review process as those for the general session. It is
therefore important that authors select the correct title of the
workshop when submitting their proposal. For more information on
submission modalities, please see:
https://llcd2026.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/4
The Organizing Committee:
Sophie Herment, Amandine Michelas, Caterina Petrone, Cristel Portes
Aix Marseille University & CNRS, Laboratoire Parole et Langage



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