Language Variation and Change in the Geographies of Suburbs

Ongoing since January 2017, Dr Danial Duncan is working with New York University on this project, funded by the National Science Foundation (US) as a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant.

Synopsis of the research project

This project explores language variation and change in suburbs, a topic thus far understudied in variationist sociolinguistics. Using Greater St. Louis as a case study, I compare linguistic production among speakers who grew up in the city of St. Louis, a set of inner-ring suburbs, and a set of outer ring suburbs in order to explore potential roles of suburbanization, metropolitan fragmentation, and local & regional identity in linguistic variation.

Key outputs

Duncan, Daniel. 2020. Secondary education as a group marker in St. Louis, Missouri. Language in Society. DOI: 10.1017/S0047404520000378.

Duncan, Daniel. 2019. The influence of suburban development and metropolitan fragmentation on language variation and change: Evidence from Greater St. Louis. Journal of Linguistic Geography 7(2): 82-97. DOI: 10.1017/jlg.2019.8.

Duncan, Daniel. Forthcoming. Urban/suburban contact as stylized social practice. In A. Ziegler, S. Edler, N. Kleczkowski & G. Oberdorfer (eds.), Urban Matters. Current Approaches of International Sociolinguistic Research (Studies in Language Variation). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.