The fourth meeting of the Princeton Phonology Forum (PɸF 2025) will be held on April 18-19, 2025.
The theme for PɸF 2025 is Sound Patterns and Human History. The workshop aims to bring together scholars whose research examines the connection between human history, events, and migration (as evidenced from oral history, archeology, genetics, etc.) and large-scale areal zones of sound system convergence. Some of the questions that will be addressed are:
- Where are the established phonological zones of convergence, and what are the plausible historical events which can explain this convergence?
- Are there linguistic echoes in modern sound patterns of major human migrations and major historical events? Can we establish phonological “founder effects” for the major areas of the world? (Nichols 2024)
- What explanations are there for languages which do not pattern areally? Historical, linguistic, social isolation, ideology?
- How much of phonological typology can be explained by areal patterning (as opposed to Universal Grammar or other cognitive and functional sources)? Which sound changes are more often than not due to contact/convergence, and which are not?
- Which properties of sound systems are more likely to spread via contact/convergence, and which ones not? Which ones are stable and which ones are not?
- How do we properly evaluate evidence for environmental factors affecting sound systems?
- How do we hypothesize the time depth of areal features?
Registration is free, but is required for both in-person and virtual attendance (see registration form below).
Speakers
Laura Arnold (ANU, Australia)
Rosemary Beam de Azcona (ENAH, Mexico)
Koen Bostoen (Ghent)
Claire Bowern (Yale)
Marc Brunelle (Ottawa)
Shelece Easterday (Hawai’i)
Jeff Good (Buffalo)
Harald Hammarström (Uppsala)
Dmitry Idiatov (LLACAN, France)
Steven Moran (Neuchâtel)
Sara Pacchiarotti (Ghent)
Bonny Sands (Northern Arizona)
Mark Van de Velde (LLACAN, France)
Kofi Yakpo (Hong Kong)
Schedule & abstracts
The schedule and abstracts will be posted at this link.
Registration
Registration is free, and registrants are welcome to attend in person or virtually. If you plan to attend, please complete the following registration form:
https://forms.gle/Nfh5HgdVUASWqucR7
Venue, transportation, and lodging
tbd
Contact information
Organizers: Florian Lionnet and Nicholas Rolle
Email addresses: flionnet@princeton.edu, nrolle@princeton.edu
