Bill Labov
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William Labov, known far and wide as one of the most influential linguists of the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away this morning at the age of 97, with his wife, Gillian Sankoff, by his side.
Bill is still very alive to us, so many of us, here at Penn. His voice reverberates. Mark is working on a longer, more detailed appreciation.
For now, a warm memory. One night over dinner Bill said that when he wrote he liked to imagine a scholar in the library, perhaps in some faraway place or distant future, opening one of his books and finding a useful insight, just as he had from scholars before him. We got to see him receive news about such an occurrence one evening at that same table: a guest hand-delivered, from the hills of Sindhi-speaking Pakistan, a sociolinguistic book inscribed with thanks for his insight, inspiration, and example.
Here’s a favorite picture of Bill turning to say goodbye one Thanksgiving afternoon. Farewell, dear friend.
Update — Some other early remembrances:
And this is worth a look, if you haven't read it: Jack Chambers, "William Labov: An Appreciation", Annual Review of Linguistics, 2017.
Also, just as Bill passed, the LDC completed the transcription and anonymization of the audio tapes from his influential 1961 field work in Martha's Vineyard, described in "The social motivation of a sound change", Word 1963, and elsewhere. The results will be published as soon as quality control, metadata analysis, and documentation are complete.
As he wrote in his 1987 paper "How I got into linguistics, and what I got out of it":
My first research was on the little island of Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod. My friend Murray Lerner, the film maker, invited me up there. There I noticed a peculiar way of pronouncing the words right, ice, sight, with the vowel in the middle of the mouth, that was stronger among young people, but varied a great deal by occupation, by island locale, or by the speaker's background–Yankee, Portuguese, or Indian. I interviewed people all over the Vineyard, and among them I found some of the finest users of the English language I had ever known.
As I finally figured out, the Martha's Vineyard sound change was serving as a symbolic claim to local rights and privileges, and the more someone tried to exercise that claim, the stronger was the change. This became my M.A. essay, and I gave it as a paper before the Linguistic Society of America. In those days, there was only a single session, and you practically addressed the entire profession when you advanced to the podium. I had imagined a long and bitter struggle for my ideas, where I would push the social conditioning of language against hopeless odds, and finally win belated recognition as my hair was turning gray. But my romantic imagination was cut short. They ate it up!
See also the discussions of Bill's work in "The state of speech-to-text", 8/11/2023.
Update 2 — Some memories from Anne Harper Charity Hudley are here.
Michael Newman said,
December 17, 2024 @ 9:21 pm
It seems rare that someone so extraordinary could be at the same time so generous, open, and generous with his time, so normal in the best possible sense.
Jenny Chu said,
December 17, 2024 @ 9:37 pm
Having learned about his work when he was already a legend, I am one of those who had no idea that Prof. Labov was still with us until now; I imagined him as one of the ancient greats who had departed long ago. It is heartening to hear that he did live many more years and brought so much insight to so many parts of the world. Thank you for sharing this.
Marianne Hundt said,
December 17, 2024 @ 10:01 pm
On the 16th of March 2010 at 17:00, I listened to William Labov as he gave his lecture at the LAUD symposium in Koblenz-Landau. The title was “What can be learned?” I had come from Heidelberg to hear a scholar whose work was so key to sociolinguistics in person, and to the present day remember the calm but also incredible energy. I opened my ‘Key Concepts in Sociolinguistics’ lecture this semester quoting from his piece (online) on ‘How I got into linguistics, and what I got out of it’, and then again and again from his work throughout the semester. On re-reading his Martha’s Vineyard study, I was wondering whether he was more second-wavy than he is usually credited to be. I’m looking forward to reading my students’ exam scripts (date is tomorrow) to see his ideas live on, being critiqued and developed further. So many standing on the shoulders of this scholar!
Viseguy said,
December 17, 2024 @ 11:18 pm
William Labov was my "Linguistics 101" prof, 55 years ago. What a privilege it was to be allowed to listen to his reel-to-reel field recordings, in which he documented examples of spoken English from around the world. As a teacher, he was unforgettable; he leaves an indelible mark not only on linguistics, but on his countless students, including me. Rest in peace, Professor Labov.
James Walker said,
December 17, 2024 @ 11:26 pm
Like many of us I got to know Bill through his writing before I ever met him in person. All through graduate school I looked to his work for an example of clear, readable academic writing. When I finally did meet him in person (I think it was at the 1992 Sociolinguistics Symposium in Reading) what struck me was his ability to talk to anyone and give them his full attention. He really was interested in everyone he met. Even over the last few years, if I e-mailed to ask him for or about something, he would respond almost immediately and at length. I will miss him.
Patrick-André Mather said,
December 18, 2024 @ 12:37 am
I met him once, about thirty five years ago, when he gave a talk at the Université de Montréal. He was an inspiration to me, and I became a sociolinguist in great part because I admired his work.
Clive Holes said,
December 18, 2024 @ 2:07 am
The man who invented sociolinuistics
Anubis Bard said,
December 18, 2024 @ 6:26 am
It's funny I was just thinking of him yesterday when I was casting around for my reading glasses. I have an indelible image of him pacing in one of Penn's small lecture halls, grabbing one pair of glasses to read something from a book and then looking for his other pair so he could see us students. But every day I probably use something or other that I learned in his classes 40 years ago. Truly a great personage.
Jarek Weckwerth said,
December 18, 2024 @ 7:08 am
He will never be forgotten!
J.W. Brewer said,
December 18, 2024 @ 7:45 am
I got a lot out of a lot of different material covered in the intro-to-sociolinguistics class I took as an undergraduate* in … probably spring semester of '86, plus or minus. But I have a very specific memory of the day or week where the assigned reading included a description of Labov's famous mid-Sixties department-store experiment aimed at eliciting varying pronunciations of "fourth floor." So much of the "data" treated as the reliable starting point for theorizing in the other classes I was taking back then was of the "just-sit-in-your-office-at-MIT-and-introspect-about-your-own-grammaticality-judgments" variety, so the notion that you couldn't just trust your own supposed native-speaker intuitions because you didn't actually know what the facts were until you went out and gathered them, and ideally gathered them carefully via a methodology designed to elicit unselfconscious utterances from speakers who didn't know what you were trying to gather data about, was very illuminating and perspective-changing.
Вечная память, as we sometimes say in some specialized varieties of AmEng.
*Not even taught in the Linguistics dep't, but over in Anthropology due to the local campus politics and turf wars of the time at the specific university, although I frankly don't know if it was more that Anthro had taken the initiative to seize the disputed borderland or if rather Ling hadn't been particularly interested in it.
Solomon Tsai said,
December 18, 2024 @ 7:46 am
What a terrible, sad, heartbreaking piece of news that he has passed away. I am starting my career as a linguist, currently undertaking my second year as an undergraduate linguistics student at the University of Cambridge. I have to say, his paper on New York’s social strata and the vowels of “fourth floor” will always have a place in my memory. Sociolinguistics will not be the same without him. He has my utmost respect. Rest in peace, William Labov.
Marcel Bax said,
December 18, 2024 @ 8:00 am
I am a (retired) linguist from the Netherlands, and l owe a very special debt of gratitude to this great scholar. My 1985 doctoral dissertation on narrative evaluation was inspired by Labov's acclaimed work on oral narrative, and, what is more, his paper on ritual insults served as the impetus behind my 1981 article on ritual challenges of medieval knights, and so, in a sense, the emergence of the field that is today known as historical pragmatics. Without William Labov, my life, and my career, would have been far less interesting! Many thanks, Bill, may you rest in peace, I'm sure your legacy will last…
Maria Marta Pereira Scherre said,
December 18, 2024 @ 8:31 am
It has been 97 years of a beautiful life on earth. I will always miss Labov. His texts will remain everlasting. I leave here my good thoughts for Labov and my immense affection for Gillian Sankoff. I had the privilege of living good times with them. I learned a lot from them, and I continue to learn, along the long road of life. A huge hug. Marta Scherre
Jerry Packard said,
December 18, 2024 @ 8:33 am
Bill was a great mentor and wonderful colleague. God bless Bill and warmest condolences to Gillian.
Maria Marta Pereira Scherre said,
December 18, 2024 @ 8:34 am
São 97 anos de uma bela vida terrena. Vou sempre sentir saudades do Labov. Ficam seus textos, perenes. Deixo aqui meus pensamentos bons para o Labov e meu imenso carinho a Guillian Sankoff. Tive o privilégio de viver bons momentos com eles. Aprendi muito com eles e continuo aprendendo sempre, pela longa estrada da vida.
Maria Marta Pereira Scherre said,
December 18, 2024 @ 8:44 am
São 97 anos de uma bela vida terrena. Vou sempre sentir saudades do Bill. Ficam seus textos, perenes. Deixo aqui meus bons pensamentos para Labov. Deixo também meu imenso carinho a Gillian, nesse momento saudoso, em especial. Tive o privilégio de viver intensos momentos com Bill e com Gillian. Aprendi muito com eles e continuo aprendendo, pela longa estrada da vida. A huge hug. Marta Scherre
Benjamin E. Orsatti said,
December 18, 2024 @ 8:48 am
Вечная память.
Owen said,
December 18, 2024 @ 9:14 am
I believe he may have been one of the first two linguists whose names lodged themselves in my memory when I started being interested in the topic. Very sad day.
Maria das Graças Dias Pereira said,
December 18, 2024 @ 9:40 am
Estamos muito importante aqui no Brasil. Nossos sentimentos a toda a família e aos amigos. Um abraço carinhoso, Maria das Graças Dias Pereira PUC-RIO
Maria das Graças Dias Pereira said,
December 18, 2024 @ 9:44 am
Estamos muito tristes aqui no Brasil. Seu legado é muito importante. Nossos sentimentos a família e amigos. Que esteja bem em sua vida espiritual. Um abraço carinhoso Maria das Graças Dias Pereira PUC Rio
Ronald Beline Mendes said,
December 18, 2024 @ 10:05 am
In Brazil, the development and the evolution of research in language variation and change owe a whole lot to Labov. Many of us, in numerous programs and universities all over the country, were trained according to "Labovian principles".
I am very grateful I had the privilege of meeting him at the NWAV in Raleigh (2001) and attending to his talks through the years since then.
Thank you, Bill!
My condolences to Gillian, family and close friends.
David Graff said,
December 18, 2024 @ 11:11 am
Bill was energetic and indefatigable at linguistic analysis, and his skills and insights as a phonetician were astonishing. He created a genuine sense of fascination and dedication in the course work and research that he directed. Also, he was an exceptional human being. He truly helped to make the world better.
J.W. Brewer said,
December 18, 2024 @ 11:21 am
This is a nice short tribute focusing on how Bill Labov himself expressed continuing appreciation over many many decades for the benefits he had gotten from knowing his mentor/collaborator Uriel Weinreich, who was born barely a year and a half before Labov but then died so young that Labov outlived him by 57 years. https://jofrhwld.github.io/blog/posts/2024/12/2024-12-17_in-remembrance/
DCBob said,
December 18, 2024 @ 11:36 am
A generous and kind man. A single question from him at a conference in 2004 inspired years of useful research out of me. Can't thank him enough.
Naomi Nagy said,
December 18, 2024 @ 11:55 am
I think of Bill's words, wisdom and wealth of knowledge on virtually a daily basis. (If I were younger, I'd say 'literally on a daily basis.') My heart goes out to his family and his friends and all of us who have been so deeply shaped by him. It's delightful to see this collection of beautiful sentiments.
Peter Trudgill said,
December 18, 2024 @ 12:27 pm
We owe him everything.
Peter
Jonathan Gress-Wright said,
December 18, 2024 @ 12:58 pm
So sad to hear of his passing. I was privileged to study at Penn when he was still teaching and could take advantage of his presence. I remember him as extremely generous with his time. I focused on historical linguistics rather than sociolinguistics but of course his research was extremely important for understanding language change in any period. And I think specialists in many other sub fields owe him a lot.
זיכרונו לברכה
Lesley Milroy said,
December 18, 2024 @ 1:07 pm
He revolutionised the way we looked at how people varied in the way they used language. His generosity in sharing his insights while accepting further innovations was exemplary. Those who knew him will never forget him.
Thank you Bill.
Paul Kerswill said,
December 18, 2024 @ 1:41 pm
Like so many, I owe a lot to Bill. He was always interested in my work, but he was also kind and generous in more personal ways – like when he lent me his bike during my study leave at Penn so that I could explore the city's districts. I also fondly remember brunch at Gillian's and Bill's apartment in Rittenhouse Square: Bill prepared the waffles while talking. The talking went fine – and so, actually, did the waffles, though it was touch and go. My first meeting with Bill was many years before at the 4th Sociolinguistics Symposium in Sheffield in 1982: there, I also met Lesley and Jim Milroy for the first time. At breakfast I sat with them again, and Bill joined us. Lesley introduced me, with the words: 'This is Paul, and he doesn't agree with your speech community theory', after which Lesley and Jim left. As a new PhD student I felt a bit daunted, but I needn't have been. Bill and I got talking about my data and ideas, and he was more than just tolerant of the new bloke. Ever since that conversation, the speech community idea has been a recurring focus for my work. Thank you, Bill.
Jennifer Sheffield said,
December 18, 2024 @ 5:05 pm
I'm sorry to hear of Bill's death, and immensely glad to have known him when I was studying at Penn. So grateful for his work and the many ways it has influenced the field and the world. I just went and found a radio segment I remember from Fresh Air in 1997, in which he played a recording of a kid in Camden, asking, "Can she pass for white?", and then explained that while everyone who listens codes her as Black, she's actually a white kid, who instead passes for Black (through inflection and vocabulary rather than using AAVE grammar, as it turns out).
My deep condolences to Gillian and family, and to all experiencing his loss. An amazing life, to touch so many people.
And now I finally have to join Bluesky, expressly so that I can like the comment,
"Adieu William Labov, hope you made it to the fourth floor."
Pierrette THIBAULT said,
December 18, 2024 @ 6:23 pm
So many branches of Bill Labov’s ground-breaking work bore fruit in Canadian Sociolinguistics. Forever grateful!
Gregory Guy said,
December 18, 2024 @ 8:46 pm
Bill Labov was an inspiration to many of us, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he inspired and made possible my entire life’s work. My first time reading one of his papers was what inspired me to do linguistics. In fall of my junior year at Boston University I was sitting in the library, reading ‘The logic of nonstandard English’. The scene is still vivid in my memory. The afternoon gloom was spreading, but it felt to me like the pages of the journal were glowing, lighting up the whole room. For me, that paper explained and validated my experiences growing up, the language of my friends and the way they were treated by teachers at the black-majority school in Philly that I attended through 8th grade. That was the moment when I decided that this was what I wanted to do with my life. But besides being my inspiration, Bill also made it possible for me to achieve this goal. I applied to Penn for graduate school, and was admitted, but without funding. Fortuitously, the summer before I was to start I got to meet Bill at a wedding in Philly. I was babbling to him about how much I admired his work and hoped to study with him, but didn’t know if I could afford it. He told me to take out a loan for the first semester, and then ‘if things work out, you can work on my project.’ I did so on faith, and things did work out, and I’ve spent my life working in the world of Bill’s boundless projects. He has influenced me more than anyone in my life other than my parents.
As we sang in the tribute song for him at NWAV in 2014, he never retired, and we pray that he never gets tired. To honor him, let us always keep having “conversations with strangers” and listen to their stories, and pass this passion on to our own students.
Mimi Lipson said,
December 18, 2024 @ 11:03 pm
Reading Language in the Inner City was what made me want to be a linguist. Specifically, I wanted to study with Bill Labov, and so I applied to Penn and only Penn for graduate study. To this day, getting a call from Bill to say I'd been accepted by the program is the biggest shot in the arm I've ever had. I will never stop being proud of that call. He was an absolute delight as a teacher: inspiring, perspicacious, dry, energetic, demotic. He was genuinely interested in everything you brought to him. Even after his many decades of conducting and supervising fieldwork, there was always something that surprised him. I didn't ultimately become a linguist, but his influence is all over my writing.
And when I want to explain to someone what sociolinguistics is, I always reach for Bill's elegant, lucid department-store study. I think the ratio of explanatory power to fuss in that study is as good a demonstration as any of his genius. Someone should make a short film based on it.
Janet Holmes said,
December 19, 2024 @ 12:53 am
Farewell to an inspirational sociolinguist
The first variationist
My abiding memory of Bill Is when he and Gillian and their two girls were picked up by my son from the airport and brought to stay with us. According to my son (who was studying computer technology) Bill talked all the way home about the problem he had with his new notebook i.e. laptop and as soon as they arrived they both disappeared into my sons bedroom where they spent the next hour sorting out his problems. §ubsequently my son took the two girls on an exciting trip through the hills and valleys of a wild area which is now an environmental park – it was a memorable visit My deepest condolences to Gillian, Rebecca and Alice
Ruth Wodak said,
December 19, 2024 @ 8:59 am
Bill Labov was a great inspiration for every sociolinguist! I remember when he came to Vienna to visit and lecture, 1984. He was as always fantastic, talked to many students and colleagues, never tired to explain his variationist approach. I am very grateful for all his ideas, his innovative research, and also for his criticism and many comments to our work and projects in Vienna, at that time.
He was also great fun, taking walks with us, especially with my newly-born son Jakob. Indeed, he knew so much about so many things, also about mushrooms. During our walks in the Vienna Woods, he would suddenly kneel down and take pictures of a rare mushroom and smile because he was so happy that he discovered this specimen.
I met Bill at other conferences, and also visited him at UPenn where my son studied. However, he did not/could not persuade Jakob to study Linguistics and Sociolinguistics. One sociolinguist in the family was enough!
My deepest condolences to his family. We will all miss him very much!
Solange de Azambuja Lira said,
December 19, 2024 @ 9:28 am
I was fortunate to be a Ph.D. student at Penn under Labov and Gillian’s guidance. As an international student from Brasil, I was at awe at Labov and I remembered being reprimanded by him because I called him Dr. Labov. He insisted to be called Bill by all his students. I still remember taking the first course with him then called Study of a Speech Community. Although it was 46 years ago, the lessons on how to approach a speech community followed me throughout my academic career both in Brasil and here. Sociolinguistics thrives in Brasil due to Labov’s influence and the many students who were guided by him and Gillian. All my love to Gillian. Good bye Bill. You will live forever in our hearts.
Renate Portz said,
December 19, 2024 @ 10:17 am
Earlier on in Dec. an old friend if mine sent me, as usual, a text message and soon after forwarded to my surprise a voice message telling me, in part breathlessly, about a recent danger she had expeienced together with her young granddaughter. My thoughts immediately went to Bill Labov and his research into danger-of-death narrations. And I wondered whether he had ever pursued this research in children and adolescents.
In all my professional life (sociolinguistics and 2nd language acquisition) his approach to field research and elicitation techniques has been of great importance. I vividly remember an inspiring workshop with him in the 1970s when I was a student on the brink of switching from literature studies to linguistics.
As always in the last few years I visited his website early in Dec. (when he had his birthday), to see whether he is fine as ever.
Learning that Charon meanwhile has come to take him, I hope that he was spared danger of death at the end of this life. RIP!
Susan Sheehan said,
December 19, 2024 @ 2:18 pm
I was shocked when I heard about Bill’s passing. I thought that he would live forever. I count myself lucky as one of the people who worked so closely with both he and Gillian.
Working with Bill was my first experience working in the academic environment. It was an incredible experience that I will treasure. Although I was amazed at how many of his previous students came back to Penn to visit and or consult with him, I certainly understood it. As others have said, he was consistently generous with his time.
While at the Linguistics Lab, I met such a diverse collection of people who visited the Lab. Many were previous students of his who had become respected professors. Bill was an absolute genius who loved his work and discussing the work of others in his field. His mind was ever in linguistics mode. He will be remembered for generations to come. My thoughts and prayers are with Gillian and the family.
Jack Chambers said,
December 19, 2024 @ 3:23 pm
When the editors of the Annual Review of Linguistics invited me to wrote an appreciation of Bill, I went to him and said that I would probably be bugging him for interviews. The next time I saw him, probably at NWAV in Vancouver, I told him that instead of interviewing him I had decided to interview others about him. He grinned about as broadly as I had ever seen him grin, and he said, "Oh, instead of finding out what I think of the profession, you're going to find out what the profession thinks of me." How right he was. That anticipatory grin at the start was the only hint that it pleased him.
Daming Xu said,
December 19, 2024 @ 4:32 pm
Bill Labov became my hero when I read his writing in Chinese translation some forty years ago. It was at that time I decided to study sociolinuistics for the conviction of its scientific vigor. Thanks to the help of Shana Poplack, I got into the 1986 LSA Institute at New York and took two courses from Gillian and Bill. At some time during the course I thought that I would fail because of the difficult assignments but at the end of course Bill recognized my work and even invited me to come to study at Penn. Somehow I did not make it to Penn and completed my PhD at U Ottawa. In 2001, Bill extended an invitation for me to visit his lab. That was just before his visit to Beijing for an invited seminar and he asked for my comments on his prepared lecture notes. It was during this time I got to know him and Gillian better and personally. The organizers at Beijing had to change their plans when Bill insisted having me as his interpreter during his lectures for making sure his ideas conveyed to the audience. I am forever grateful to Bill for not only his teaching but also for the significant impact he had on my career as a university professor and researcher. His insights in sociolinguistics have continued to inspire my work and thinking over the years. My heartfelt condolences go out to Gillian, family, and friends during this difficult time. Bill will always be remembered as a remarkable scholar and a truly compassionate individual.
Bonnie Fonseca-Greber said,
December 19, 2024 @ 9:44 pm
Toutes nos condoléances!
Rajend - Mesthrie said,
December 20, 2024 @ 1:13 am
A sad time for Linguistics, not just sociolinguistics. Bill's work still echoes here in one of the most southern cities on the planet, and received particular impetus this millenium with the changing social networks after apartheid. Bill and Gillian were our chief – and most generous of – guests at the first truly international linguistics conference in Cape Town 2000 (after decades of international boycotts). I too can testify to their generous hosting of my wife, Uma and me at their home in Philly. (But no waffles for breakfast, to my recollection. Actually Bill had just got back from the East (I think) via Hawai'i and had lost track of the days of the week). The folk at Penn were also most welcoming during my 6 month stay there as an unknown postdoc scholar in 1989. So what a privilege when Bill contacted me three years ago, still so active, about an outlet for a book of recollections of his fieldwork, with lots of illustrative excerpts. The result was 'Conversations with Strangers' (CUP Elements in Sociolinguistics, 2023), a fitting first volume in this series.
We owe it to Bill to continue socially relevant, linguistically accountable and community sensitive research. RIP Bill.
Doug Adamson said,
December 20, 2024 @ 4:02 am
By spreading the understanding that a Black English was a dialect like any other English variety, he placed linguistics in the service of social justice.
Philip Taylor said,
December 20, 2024 @ 5:07 am
So many wonderful tributes — I cannot help but wish that I too had been privileged to meet William ("Bill") Labov, someone who was so clearly universally admired and loved.
Julia Skala said,
December 20, 2024 @ 5:43 am
Whenever I teach research methodologies, William Labov's New York Department Store Study is the first example I use to illustrate what a clear research question, well-thought-out independent variables, and a clever, creative study set-up can achieve. My students always love it, and I have had many a group, as a final project, running around the 1st (very posh) and 3rd (not so fancy) district of Vienna, asking what district they are in, to elicit a postvocalic 'r', and see if there is a difference to be discovered in second language users in Vienna as well.
Warmest condolences to his family and friends!
Victor Mair said,
December 20, 2024 @ 9:40 am
At our 25th Penn reunion party many years ago, Bill Labov turned to me with a big smile and said, "Victor, you and I are still here because we never played the "climb the employment ladder" game.
I'm so glad he decided to stay.
Carol Wollman Pfaff said,
December 20, 2024 @ 10:55 am
I wasn't one of Bill's students but he and his work inspired and influenced me greatly. I first met him in 1966 when he gave a lecture during the Linguistics Institute at UCLA where he presented his Martha's Vineyard study, inspiring me to focus on language variation and change.
Between my MA and PhD, I worked at the Southwest Laboratory for Educational Research and Development as part of a research group on the Black English of young children in Los Angeles. One of my tasks was to go through the Labov, Cohen, Robins and Lewis 1969 report to devise a coding system for linguistic variables for the analysis of recordings of small groups of working- and middle-class primary school children in Los Angeles. During one of his visits to L.A., Bill came by to consult with us and recorded our conversation on a very small cassette recorder which he’d had in plain sight, but which we hadn’t noticed until he revealed it.
Later as professor of linguistics at the multi-disciplinary Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, my teaching focused on sociolinguistics of North America, and, naturally, Bill’s work was central. I was happy to be able to invite him to lecture there, giving my students and colleagues a chance to experience him live and to hear excerpts from his recordings from the Atlas of North American English and hear his explanation of spectrograms of vowels, exemplifying the integration of technical analysis and socially relevant research in linguistics.
When I began my empirical investigations of the linguistic development and cross-linguistic influences in Turkish L1, German L2 and English L3 of Turkish children and adolescents, Bill’s elicitation methods strongly influenced me in developing my own techniques, even building age appropriate “danger of death” asides into semi-structured psycholinguistic interactions and conversations about school and neighborhood experiences. When discussing this work, I’ve always pointed to Bill’s groundbreaking work and personal influence on the field and on me in particular. I’m lucky to have known him all these years and extend my condolences to Gillian.
Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth said,
December 20, 2024 @ 1:59 pm
Bill Labov inspired me from the beginning. As a speaker of an alternate variety referenced in his famous study of NYC English (I speak the working class version used in the bargain store), I was immediately captured by his research. His many incredible contributions to the field of sociolinguistics have provided, and continue to provide understanding and clarity on how languages live in the real world. But first and foremost, I will always remember his extraordinary kindness and care. He will be missed by family, friends, students, and scholars- and by everyone with the good fortune to have met him. This year, the 2025 NABE Research Institute will be dedicated to his memory.