“If you grew up thinking that languages are something given—like the sun, the moon and the stars—sociolinguistics will tell you a very different story: languages are something that are collectively made and socially constructed.”
The 19th Methods in Dialectology and Language Diversity International Conference will bring researchers from around the world to the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Vancouver campus from August 4-8, 2026. Co-organized by UBC’s Department of English Language & Literatures and Department of Linguistics, the conference’s theme, “Rethinking Our Assumptions,” encourages researchers to reflect on their tradition’s presuppositions—including how dialectology has contributed to processes of colonization and the creation of standardized language varieties, while ignoring or subjugating Indigenous languages.
Ahead of the conference, we spoke with Dr. Stefan Dollinger, Professor at the Department of English Language & Literatures and Chair of the organizing committee, about:
- Why dialectology matters
- Why UBC Vancouver is an especially fitting place to host these conversations
- What attendees can expect from this year’s program
What is dialectology?
If you grew up thinking that languages are something given—like the sun, the moon and the stars—sociolinguistics will tell you a very different story: languages are something that are collectively made and socially constructed. That means they are, unlike celestial bodies, subject to frequent and constant change. There are 100 ways to slice up and divide linguistic variation. English, French, German, Coastal Salish, Hakka, Cantonese is just one way to look at it—a way that is informed by social power. Maybe Canadian English, American English, Quebec French, Austrian German, Downriver Musqueam, Up-River Sto’lo, etc. might be more adequate today.
Dialectology—the study of language variation—is a wide field that has grown exponentially since the 1970s. It seeks to answer questions such as: How does language vary by social and geographical attributes? What do people think about particular ways of speaking? What might subtle changes in vowel pronunciation tell about who I am or who I am trying to be? What is “linguistically just”?
Why is it important to rethink our assumptions—as the conference theme suggests?
“Language is never just about language.”
On the whole, dialectology is a rather old academic field and has many established, if not to say set, routines that are intertwined with 19th century nation-making, which need disentangling. With younger language varieties, such as Papua New Guinea’s Tok Pisin, however, it is often precisely the group and identity-making aspect of language that is important. Variationist approaches, in the narrow sense, are about as old as the Methods Conference itself, and even that field has its unquestioned presuppositions—for instance, that quantification is key. Language is never just about language and we’d like to expressly reflect on that and other aspects.
What makes UBC Vancouver a meaningful place to host this conference?
UBC Vancouver campus.
“We explore what Vancouver’s languages may contribute to a new, inclusive standard of Canadian English.”
Hosting the conference at UBC shows that we have a role to play in the international research environment and that we have a lot going on. We have so many linguists and language experts at UBC and beyond that we have our own umbrella organization, the Language Sciences Institute.
Vancouver is a highly diverse linguistic city with a good tolerance for linguistic codes—albeit, in terms of language learning, we’re not the most active language learners. And if we learn something, it’s (Canadian) English, and that is often at the expense of other languages. One strand, which we explore in our conference closing Open Townhall, is what Vancouver’s languages may contribute to a new, inclusive standard of Canadian English and how that compares to other languages.
The Methods Conference was a Canadian idea in the early 1970s, with the conference beginning in 1972 in Prince Edward Island. Afterwards, it alternated between the UK and Canada, before it was expanded to Europe and Canada. Now, Methods conferences are hosted across the globe. It was time to “bring it back” and see how our Pacific Rim and Canadian setting may allow for further impulses.
What can attendees look forward to?
“It’s a great opportunity to widen one’s horizons, to re-shift one’s focus.”
We have speakers from 30 different countries, so there is lots to learn about how the ‘social’ influences the ‘linguistic’ from case studies spanning Luxemburgish, Italian, Mandarin or Polynesian languages, to name just a few. Many faculty will be giving talks on some of the world’s 7000+ languages.
I’m also looking forward to the Open Townhall on the topic of “How ‘Inclusive’ Can and Should Standard Languages Be?” because that is an attempt to square the circle. We need lots of speaker input for that public event on Friday, August 7th, from 6:00-8:00 pm, so we ask people to join us.
UBC students may sit in for free and get inspired. For many of our students, including my own lab’s students, it’ll be their first opportunity to see what it’s like to partake, observe and ask questions, at a big international gathering of sociolinguists in all their varying hues. It’s a great opportunity to widen one’s horizons, to re-shift one’s focus.
