New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) is an annual

academic conference An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an Convention (meeting), event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic jou ...

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...

. NWAV attracts researchers and students conducting

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

scientific investigations into patterns of

language variation Variation is a characteristic of language: there is more than one way of saying the same thing in a given language. Variation can exist in domains such as pronunciation (e.g., more than one way of pronouncing the same phoneme or the same word), le ...

, the study of

language change Language change is the process of alteration in the features of a single language, or of languages in general, over time. It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistic ...

in progress, and the interrelationship between

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

and

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

, including how language variation is shaped by and continually shapes societal

institution An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...

s, social and

interpersonal relationship In social psychology, an interpersonal relation (or interpersonal relationship) describes a social association, connection, or affiliation between two or more people. It overlaps significantly with the concept of social relations, which a ...

s, and individual and group identities. The conference originated under the title New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English in October 1972 at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

; "English" was dropped from the conference title later as languages other than English entered the conference's focus. The most recent meeting
NWAV 52
was held in 2024 in

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

, hosted by

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest univ ...

and the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

. The next meeting will be held in 2025, hosted by the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. The 2026 meeting will be hosted by the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

. The 2027 meeting will be hosted by the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

Past conferences

References

{{Reflist

External links

NWAV 40
(Archive)
NWAV 43 website (Chicago, 2014)

NWAV 44 website (Toronto, 2015)

* [http://www.ling.osu.edu/~ddurian/DD_NWAV_35_Retro.pdf NWAV@35 Retrospective (Originally published in the NWAV 35 Program Booklet; By David Durian, The Ohio State University, with a foreword by Roger Shuy)]
American Dialect Society

NWAV 42 (Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh, 2013)

NWAV 41 (Indiana University Bloomington, 2012)

NWAV 39 (University of Texas, San Antonio, 2010)

NWAV 38 (University of Ottawa, 2009)

NWAV 36 (University of Pennsylvania, 2007)

NWAV 35 (The Ohio State University, 2006)
Sociolinguistics Academic conferences Social sciences conferences

Past conferences

See also

References

External links