Paying mind to language change: vowel breaking in Frisian

Dr. C.C.  Voeten (M), University of Amsterdam

For centuries, linguists have tried to explain language change. While there is consensus that this explanation lies in linguistic, social, and cognitive factors, their integration into a coherent whole has proven challenging. Ongoing changes in Frisian offer a solution. I study Frisian vowel breaking: a linguistic process that is changing now through linguistic, social and cognitive factors. This enables me to study these factors now. I conduct corpus research, sociolinguistic fieldwork, and brain experiments to describe Frisian vowel breaking alongside its social and cognitive context. The results contribute fundamentally to linguistics, and empower Frisian language education and technology.