Category: events

New publication “Heritage Spanish in Brussels” by Samantha Pérez Rodríguez, An Vande Casteele and Rik Vosters

A new article by Samantha Pérez Rodríguez, together with her supervisors An Vande Casteele and Rik Vosters, has just been published in Spanish in Context!

Titled “Heritage Spanish in Brussels: Case study on coda /s/ production by Andalusian women”, it examines coda /s/ weakening in Andalusian Spanish as a heritage language by analyzing the speech of first- and second-generation Andalusian immigrants in the city, focusing on perceptual categorization, acoustic evidence of frication, and duration.

The article can be accessed here.

 

 

 

 

New publication “Newspapers as a window into language beliefs of the past” by Yasmin Crombez

Yasmin Crombez recently contributed a chapter titled “Newspapers as a window into language beliefs of the past: Language contact and conflict in Flemish-American press” to the volume Dutch and Contact Linguistics: The Dutch language outside the Low Countries. In this chapter, she explores the language ideologies of Flemish emigrants in the United States, with a specific focus on the sociolinguistic environments both before and after the migration.

You can access the chapter via this link!

VUB Honorary Doctorate Terttu Nevalainen

On Friday, 6 June, at the stunning Vaudeville Theatre in Brussels, Prof. Dr. Em. Terttu Nevalainen received an honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She was honored for her groundbreaking contributions to the field of historical sociolinguistics – particularly her pioneering work in large-scale corpus building, her innovative use of quantitative methods to study language variation and change, and her influential insights into linguistic communities (in the history of English).

In this video, professors Wim Vandenbussche and Rik Vosters reflect on Terttu’s achievements.

Congratulations, Terttu!

New publication “Spanish as Immigrant Minority Language in Brussels” by Samantha Pérez Rodríguez, An Vande Casteele and Rik Vosters

Samantha Pérez Rodríguez’ paper entitled “Spanish as Immigrant Minority Language in Brussels: A Pilot Study on Maintenance and Vitality” was recently published in Languages. Co-authored with her supervisors, An Vande Casteele and Rik Vosters, the paper presents an exploratory study on the language practices of the Hispanic communities in Brussels, examining patterns of language transmission, home language use and integration.

The publication can be accessed here!

Team participation at the Languages in the City Symposium 2025

One of our team’s researchers, Samantha Pérez Rodríguez, was granted the chance to participate in the Languages in the City Symposium, hosted by Utrecht University from 7 to 8 April 2025.

In her talk “Andalusian Spanish in Brussels: Dialectal Variation of Coda /s/ in a Heritage Context” she shared insights from both her master’s thesis and ongoing research, focusing on the diversity of Spanish heritage varieties in Brussels.

Congratulations, Samantha!

Team participation at the Sociolinguistic Circle 2025

This past April 4 2025, our team had the opportunity to present their work at the eleventh edition of the Sociolinguistic Circle at Leiden University.

Julie Van Ongeval and Rik Vosters provided an overview of recent research in historical sociolinguistics on the history of Dutch in their plenary talk, “Unraveling myths in Dutch language history. A case study on language variation and change in Early Modern Antwerp (1564-1653)”, reassessing and unraveling entrenched myths in Dutch language history.

Additionally, Emma Lambrecht presented her master’s thesis “From Spoken Word to Written Text: Tracing Speech Patterns in 19th-Century West Flemish Pauper Letters and Witness Depositions”, deepening the understanding of historical spoken vernaculars perceived through the written medium and reflecting on the suitability of lower-order letters versus witness depositions as sources to approach past speech.

Congratulations to all of them!

PhD defense Eline Lismont

On Wednesday April 2, Eline Lismont successfully defended her PhD – cum laude! Her dissertation is entitled:

Setting the Standard: Norms and Usage in Early and Late Modern Dutch (1550-1850)

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Rik Vosters (VUB) & Prof. Dr. G.J. Rutten (Universiteit Leiden)

Congratulations, Dr. Lismont!

PhD defense Magda Serwadczak

Image source: Brissot et 20 de ses complices condamnés à mort par le tribunal révolutionnaire – Bibliothèque Nationale de France. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84120266

On January 17 at 1pm, Magda Serwadczak will defend her joint PhD (VUB-Antwerp) entitled: Actual Words Were Not Included: Orality, Literacy, and Entextualization in Historical Criminal Records (1700-1900).

Supervisors: Prof. dr. Rik Vosters (VUB), Prof. dr. Mieke Vandenbroucke (UAntwerpen)

The defense will take place in auditorium I0.01 at the VUB-campus in Etterbeek.

You are kindly invited!