Hi everyone, Just a reminder that the linguistics program has a colloquium this evening, co-sponsored by the BU African Studies Center. Hope to see you there!

Speaker: Rajend Mesthrie (University of Cape Town) Title: *Race, class and Gender in South African English* Time and venue: * TONIGHT 10/4; 5.30pm in KCB Room 101*

Abstract: New economic and educational opportunities have given rise to the rapid growth of a black middle-class in South Africa, part of whose making is having its children study at elite schools previously reserved for whites. These “model-C” schools are now important multiracial sites for cross-cultural influences denied to previous generations. The present study tracks the degree to which class and gender relate to acquisition and allegiance to elite varieties of English or more traditional Black South African English. The illustrative variable in this paper is schwa, broken up into seven subsets: initial, final, and medial positions (where there are 5 subtypes in traditional L2 Black South African English, realized as [a e i o u]). Analysis is undertaken via forced alignment of acoustic data and statistics in R. The results give robust evidence of ongoing bifurcation by class and gender.

The colloquium is also a facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1762965180629342/

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In addition, BULA will be gathering on the GSU Backcourt this Friday at 7pm. Come and grab your own dinner at the GSU, and join us on the backcourt. We'll chat about Rajend Mesthrie's colloquium, a possible trip up to Brandeis on Friday 14 for a linguistics event there (on which more soon), and about language in general. The flyer is below:

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This event is also a facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/269991040068057/