Conference Organizers: Michael D. Picone and Catherine Evans Davies

Language Variety in the South: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (LAVIS III) will be the third in a series of landmark events in the field.  LAVIS I , which was planned and arranged by Michael B. Montgomery and Guy Bailey and held at the University of South Carolina-Columbia in the fall of 1981, constituted an initial display of the state of research as it then existed and served as a model for further solid scholarship on language variation in the South. It resulted in a volume of 21 articles entitled Language Variety in the South: Perspectives in Black and White, edited by Montgomery and Bailey and published by the University of Alabama Press.  Following suit, LAVIS II, organized by Cynthia Bernstein, Thomas Nunnally and Robin Sabino, and held at Auburn University in the spring of 1993, helped to consolidate the achievements of prior research while showcasing methodological advances and signaling a forward-looking change that broadened the research agenda.  This conference resulted in a second landmark publication by the University of Alabama Press. A refereed selection of 38 papers appeared in a volume entitled Language Variety in the South Revisited, edited by Bernstein, Nunnally & Sabino.  Approximately 11 years separated LAVIS I and LAVIS II. In the spring of 2004, after a similar interval, it will be both appropriate and essential to stage LAVIS III, at the University of Alabama, in order to continue to make important gains in the study of language variation in the South.

return to top of page

Like both its predecessors, LAVIS III will put on display the state of research as we enter the new millennium. Like both its predecessors, LAVIS III will provide an important forum of exchange on center-stage issues such as the relationship between black and white speech in the South. Like its predecessors, LAVIS III will seek to showcase the latest applications in the quantitative analysis of linguistic data, as well as other new methodologies. But LAVIS III, as envisioned, will do more. For, despite the unqualified success of both LAVIS I and LAVIS II in the areas mentioned, important gaps remain. Various historical and contemporary issues must be addressed, and must be integrated into a composite, if commensurate progress is to be made in filling in the larger picture of language variety in the South.  In relation to the linguistic history of the South, there remains a need to establish a benchmark in the form of a more comprehensive sociohistorical reconstruction of the evolving linguistic landscape in the South, including historical dialect geography and linguistic demographics.  The issues to be addressed here include the role of indigenous languages and trade jargons, links to the Caribbean, and the nature of the European linguistic mix.  In relation to the contemporary picture and future projections, there are many vital issues to be addressed, some of which are anchored in previous research, and some of which represent an expansion into new territory, but all of which will benefit from the impetus of LAVIS III.  These issues include the complexity of relationship between black and white speech, current language contact, new frameworks and technologies for quantitative methodologies, and the use of innovative methodologies in approaching an expanded object of study including perceptual dialectology, discourse analysis and pragmatics, language ideology, and the representation of Southern speech in the media. Subsequent to the conference, a refereed publication will appear from a selection of LAVIS III presentations. Michael D. Picone and Catherine Evans Davies will be co-editors, and, once again, the University of Alabama Press will be the publisher.

return to top of page

LAVIS III Sponsors

It is gratefully acknowledged that the National Science Foundation (Award no. BCS-0317553), the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Alabama, the College of Arts and Sciences Anonymous Lecture Fund, the Deep South Regional Humanities Center at Tulane University, the South Atlantic Regional Humanities Center at the University of Virginia, the Central Regional Humanities Center at Ohio University, the American Dialect Society, and the Bankhead History Endowment have all made financial commitments to help underwrite the costs of LAVIS III. Other University of Alabama sponsors include: The College of Communication and Information Sciences, The Graduate School, Department of American Studies, Department of Anthropology, Department of History, Department of Modern Languages and Classics, Department of Psychology, Department of Religious Studies, African- American Studies Program, Capstone International Center. Funding to support the post-conference phase of LAVIS (publications and a new public-resource website) has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Advisory Panel for LAVIS III

The LAVIS III Advisory Panel membership: Drs. Guy Bailey (UT at San Antonio), Cynthia Goldin Bernstein (Memphis), Barbara Johnstone (Carnegie Mellon) Thomas Klingler (Tulane), William Kretzschmar (Georgia), Sonja Lanehart (Georgia), Michael Montgomery (USC Columbia), Salikoko Mufwene (Chicago), Pamela Munro (UCLA), Walt Wolfram (NC State).

return to top of page

Plenary Speakers for LAVIS III

• Michael Montgomery (University of South Carolina, Columbia)
• John Lipski (Pennsylvania State University)
• Guy Bailey (University of Texas at San Antonio)
• Pamela Munro (University of California, Los Angeles)
• Salikoko Mufwene (University of Chicago)
• Walt Wolfram (North Carolina State University)
  

return to top of page

return to top of page

SECOL LXX

LAVIS III will be held concurrently with the annual spring meeting of the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL LXX).

Travel and accomodations information is available here.
All SECOL LXX participants will have free access to all LAVIS III sessions and vice versa.



For more information,
please consult the SECOL site or contact Dr. Ralf Thiede, executive secretary of SECOL, at <rthiede@email.uncc.edu>.

return to top of page

Download a text-based flyer for LAVIS III (word document)

Logos

Please read the Legal Disclaimer

Site design and maintenance: Rachel Shuttlesworth