37.2538, Calls: Languages - "Special Issue: Shifting Politeness in Multilingual Contexts: Address Forms in Migrant, Colonial, and Indigenous Languages" (Jrnl)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2538. Mon Aug 03 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2538, Calls: Languages - "Special Issue: Shifting Politeness in Multilingual Contexts: Address Forms in Migrant, Colonial, and Indigenous Languages" (Jrnl)

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Date: 29-Jul-2026
From: Vladislava Warditz [vwarditz at uni-koeln.de]
Subject: Languages - "Special Issue: Shifting Politeness in Multilingual Contexts: Address Forms in Migrant, Colonial, and Indigenous Languages" (Jrnl)


Journal: Languages
Issue: Shifting Politeness in Multilingual Contexts: Address Forms in
Migrant, Colonial, and Indigenous Languages

Forms of address are among the most sensitive linguistic indicators of
social relations, politeness norms, and identity. As societies undergo
social, political, economic and ideological transformations,
corresponding shifts in address practices emerge. Migrant, colonial,
and Indigenous languages offer a particularly fruitful ground for
examining these dynamics: In multilingual contexts, speakers of
minoritized languages often adopt formal address forms from the
dominant language, particularly in institutional or formal settings.
These borrowed forms may lack direct equivalents in the minoritized
languages, but they are adopted for pragmatic reasons, for social
integration, or for the prestige associated with the dominant
language. Informal address forms also undergo contact-induced change,
which is particularly evident across successive generations of
speakers. Situated at the intersection of grammar and pragmatics,
address forms therefore provide an ideal lens through which to
investigate the mechanisms of language evolution and the pragmatic
interface of languages in contact. When echoing Saussure's and
Meillet's insight, the Special Issue is concerned not only with
changes in address systems themselves, but also with how these changes
interact with the linguistic system, triggering broader processes of
language restructuring and affecting morphology, syntax, semantics,
and pragmatics.
Within this framework, the Special Issue aims to offer a coherent
comparative investigation of how address forms of minoritized
languages shift in different situations of language contact, i.e., in
migratory, colonial and Indigenous language settings. Across diverse
linguistic and geographic contexts, all contributions should address a
shared core question: How do politeness systems and address practices
restructure when languages are transmitted in contact settings and
embedded in changing sociocultural environments? Ultimately, by
situating address practices within broader processes of language
evolution, the Special Issue seeks to reveal how changes in address
systems both reflect and shape wider patterns of linguistic change in
multilingual contact settings.
This Special Issue seeks contributions from scholars working on
typologically and genealogically diverse languages, including
colonial, Indigenous, and diasporic varieties. Submissions are
encouraged from a wide range of multilingual settings, spanning North
and South America, Europe, South and Southeast Asia, East Asia, and
Oceania, allowing for broad cross-linguistic and cross-cultural
comparison of address practices in multilingual ecologies.
We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors
initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words
summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest
editor (vwarditz at uni-koeln.de). Abstracts will be reviewed by the
guest editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope
of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind
peer-review.
Special Issue website and manuscript submission:
Further information about the Special Issue, submission guidelines,
and the manuscript submission system can be found at:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages/special_issues/873Z0YSPC4

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     Language Documentation
                     Pragmatics
                     Sociolinguistics
                     Typology




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