The foundation of all citizen sociolinguistics is talking about language. Everybody does it, and, inevitably, though talk and conversation, everybody, collectively creates how we view and think about language around us. Those everyday conversations have been the springboard for most of the posts on this site.
The goal of this citizen sociolinguistics website has been to document varieties of language experience, as I’ve encountered them. I’ve also wanted to go beyond my own perspective. This medium, the blog site, has not been the best for back-and-forth, but I’ve enjoyed reading the comments from people across the globe who’ve added their views on the proper pronunciation of “succinct” or “croissant,” or the problematic overuse of the word “gentrification.” Now I’m hoping for more discussion, more voices, more languages, more controversy, more dialogue.
To that end, I invite you all to join me and many others on a much more interactive site, “The Virtual Linguistic Ethnography Lab: A Place to Talk about Language.” Invite your colleagues, your friends, your students!
The site is now live and waiting for the conversation to begin. Check it out:
Each topic features an interactive bulletin board that allows you to see each others’ posts and comment directly. Take a look and join the conversation! And let’s see what we can discover there together.
Citizen Sociolinguistics 