37.3312, Calls: Advances in Sociotonetics: Suprasegmental Variation in Tonal Languages (Finland)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-3312. Wed Oct 14 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.3312, Calls: Advances in Sociotonetics: Suprasegmental Variation in Tonal Languages (Finland)

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Date: 14-Oct-2026
From: Maria Konoshenko [maria.konoshenko at helsinki.fi]
Subject: Advances in Sociotonetics: Suprasegmental Variation in Tonal Languages


Full Title: Advances in Sociotonetics: Suprasegmental Variation in
Tonal Languages
Short Title: Advances in sociotonetics (AS)

Date: 28-Oct-2027 - 29-Oct-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact Person: Maria Konoshenko
Meeting Email: maria.konoshenko at helsinki.fi
Web Site:
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/projects/multilingual-variation/workshop-advances-sociotonetics

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Phonetics; Phonology;
Sociolinguistics; Typology

Call Deadline: 01-Apr-2027

Call for Papers:
Sociotonetics is a young field at the intersection of tone phonetics
and variationist sociolinguistics (Stanford 2008, Stanford & Yang
2023, and references therein). It explores suprasegmental variation in
tonal languages, i.e. languages employing pitch distinctions for
lexical and grammatical contrasts. Sociotonetic studies investigate
both language-internal variation and contact-induced variation, as
many tonal languages are spoken in multilingual environments.
This is the first workshop to bring together scholars working on
sociotonetics across typologically diverse tonal languages from around
the globe. We invite submissions that explore social, phonetic,
methodological, theoretical and typological aspects of suprasegmental
variation in tonal languages. Please note that variation in
intonation-only languages falls outside the scope of the workshop.
We would welcome contributions offering perspectives on questions
including, but not limited to, the following:
 - What are the main variables that we need to take into account in
sociotonetics? In studies of lexical tone variation, when is it
sufficient to focus on a single tonal pair, and when should we explore
the tonal space more holistically, e.g. through measures of tonal
range, tone-internal variability, tone intervals, or other measures?
 - When correlating tonal variation with social predictors, how do we
collect sufficient background information about speakers, particularly
when working on minoritized indigenous language ecologies?
 - In contact-induced variation, how do we tease apart
cross-linguistic influence vs. optimisation as potential driving
factors, e.g. among less regular users?
 - What insights can be driven by adapting approaches from later
developments in sociolinguistics, Second and Third waves, into
sociotonetic research?
 - How do production and perception align in sociotonetic variation?
 - What methods do we need for studying contact-induced variation in
an ecology involving contact between a tonal and a non-tonal language,
and how does this differ from studying contact between two (or more)
tonal languages?
 - The majority of sociotonetic studies have been carried out on
Southeast Asian languages. How does adding data from other tonal
languages, e.g. in Africa or Mesoamerica, broaden our understanding of
sociotonetic variation?
 - Given the substantial structural differences among tonal languages
from different macroareas, how do we ensure that our findings are
crosslinguistically comparable? Do we need to develop a unified
framework for studying variation in typologically different
tonologies, e.g. systems featuring both contours and levels vs. only
levels?
 - Since sociotonetics has mainly focused on lexical tone contrasts,
what can studying variation in tone alternations (e.g. sandhi and
similar processes), grammatical tones and postlexical processes add to
the picture?
 - How can psycholinguistic approaches, e.g. studies of language
acquisition and multilingual engagement, inform sociotonetic research?
 - When doing research on lesser-resourced languages, how do we strike
a balance between maintaining ecological validity and minimizing noise
in the data?
 - How is sociotonetic variation different from variation in
intonation? In stress? Segments?
We particularly encourage contributions that investigate variation in
lesser resourced, minoritized indigenous tonal languages across the
globe, even if based on smaller datasets and / or on field recordings
of lower phonetic quality.
The workshop is organized by a Helsinki-based team of scholars (Maria
Konoshenko and Maria Khachaturyan) working on Multilingual Variation
(https://www.helsinki.fi/en/projects/multilingual-variation) in West
African languages, including contact-induced variation in tone. The
workshop is funded by the project “How indigenous languages change: a
view from the heritage language perspective” supported by Kone
foundation (Principal Investigator Maria Khachaturyan).
Workshop committee: Maria Konoshenko, Maria Khachaturyan, James
Stanford, Cathryn Yang
There are NO registration fees for the workshop, but attendees still
need to take care of their own travel and accommodation.
We are very honoured to welcome our keynote speaker:
- Keynote Speaker: Cathryn Yang (Payap University)
Important Dates:
- Abstract submission deadline: April 1, 2027 (Anywhere on Earth)
- Notification of acceptance: May 1,2027
- Conference dates: 28-29 October 2027
Abstracts must not exceed 2 A4 pages in total, including 1 page for
the main text and 1 additional page for tables, figures, and
references. Please send your anonymised abstracts to the conference
email: sociotoneticsworkshop at helsinki.fi. The abstracts will be
selected by the workshop committee.



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