Sonja Schaeffler
banner
sschaeffler.bsky.social
Sonja Schaeffler
@sschaeffler.bsky.social
Reader in Speech Variation #CASL #QMU https://tinyurl.com/CASL-at-QMU
Reposted by Sonja Schaeffler
When I was a teenager there was a bus direct from my hometown in Germany to London - we had a British army base, and this direct bus connection was one of the benefits of that. One summer I went on that bus to go volunteer in an old people's home in Southend-on-Sea. I had just turned 18 and was... 🧵
September 29, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Oh well done @adrianleemann.bsky.social and team!! Wonderful news for the entire variation community as well! Really encouraging to see that in amongst budget cuts and ever increasing competitiveness, dialect research is still seen as worth the money. Hooray!
David Britain, Paul Foulkes, David Willis and I have been awarded 2.5M CHF by SNSF & AHRC for CURLEW – the first major survey of English dialects in England & Wales in 75+ years. Starts: 2026 – posts to come. Outputs: papers + a public dialect atlas 🗺️ 📸 Drafting the proposal, Bern, Jan 2025.
October 1, 2025 at 7:33 AM
A few months ago, this was my hometown's reaction to a backroom chat about 'remigration' of some minor political aides: 1 milliion out on the streets in protest, of a population of 2 million. Compare and contrast.
September 22, 2025 at 12:29 PM
At our local H&M. Don't you love Pragmatics?
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Sonja Schaeffler
This week our 2nd year undergrads in speech and language therapy at @qmuniversity.bsky.social completed their research methods module with poster presentations, and I'm very proud of them!
Amazing work, studying accent attitude, short term memory, ultrasound tongue imaging, formants and more!
April 5, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Sonja Schaeffler
My book "Researching Language and Digital Communication" is hereeee.

It may just be the most camp discussion of DMC so far. Including analyses of:

- Dolly Parton memes
- TikTok videos of Jungle and Billie Eilish
- anonymous Grindr profiles
February 18, 2025 at 10:53 AM
My lovely collaborator and PhDMama @vkempe.bsky.social is at it again. It's always worth challenging established scientific truths. This is how we make progress and future-proof our field.
💡 The idea that children drive language change is widely accepted — but does it hold up?

New research co-authored by Dr Vera Kempe challenges this view, showing little evidence that child-led innovations spread through communities.

Read more: www.mpi.nl/publications...
September 9, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Sonja Schaeffler
A new academic year is ramping up. Have you considered adding us to your syllabus?

Podcasts episodes are a great way to add variety & boost engagement, and they offer a launchpad for exploration. A number of instructors have used our episodes to good effect!

(Let us know if you're among them!)
September 5, 2025 at 5:39 PM
That sounds like a fab series of lectures on good #OpenScience practice, brought to you by Alma Mater #LMU
📢 This year, we’re hosting seven public lectures that anyone can attend completely free of charge between Sept 15 and 18!
📅 Registration for online attendance is open.
🔗 www.pretix.osc.lmu.de/lmu-osc/OSSS...

#OpenScience #OSSS25 #LMUOSC
September 5, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Sonja Schaeffler
Strengthen your skills in:
🔄 Computational reproducibility,
💻 Writing readable and reusable code,
🌍 Open access publishing,
✍️ Making your own work more likely to be replicable, and more.
Lots of valuable insights for students, researchers, and anyone interested in embracing open science practices!
September 5, 2025 at 9:59 AM
You know how much I love a good paper/ project title! #uklvc15 #sociolinguistics
September 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Sonja Schaeffler
Not sure who wants to know this but after a year of interacting with ChatGPT 4o with memory I asked it to score my personality on all the models (Big5, HEXACO, Dark+Light Triad). All I can say - it knows me very well.
July 17, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Sonja Schaeffler
Staying with me after yesterday's #uklvc15 poster session is Schaeffler et al.'s point that Child-Directed Speech was different in soviet East Germany than in the West. Less influence on individualism influences CDS phonetic features!

#acquisition #linguistics #sociolinguistics #contextmatters
September 3, 2025 at 6:34 AM
Reposted by Sonja Schaeffler
Very proud of our PhD students who did a great job presenting their work! 🎉

Janet Coulson with "Caught in the
act: Capturing interactional style-shifting in bidialectal speakers through improvisation"

And Ciera Haggar with "Characteristics Influence Listener Perceptions of Personality"
September 4, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Reposted by Sonja Schaeffler
Our wee 'Accent Variation in Scotland/ by Scots' delegation at #UKLVC15.
September 3, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Just back from #UKLVC15 in Lancaster. Huge thank you to the organising committee (special shout-out to Claire Nance!) who managed to make it relaxed, relevant and rigorous, all at once. Fab conference.
September 5, 2025 at 7:10 AM