Call for Papers
I. International Workshop
The Communicative Spaces of Mexico:
Language Contacts, Multilingualism and Linguistic Variations.
Communicative Spaces of Mexico:
Language Contacts, Multilingualism, and Linguistic Variations
19. - 21. June 2025
With over 130 million inhabitants, Mexico is home to by far the largest number of Spanish speakers in the world and has a large number speakers of Amerindian languages - excluding speakers of Mexican languages in migration situations. Mexico City alone is home to over 20 million speakers, making it the largest Spanish-speaking metropolis in the world. Various relevant studies have already shown that this demographic force is accompanied by diverse linguistic variations. In addition, the high number of Spanish speakers is linked to various linguistic and cultural peculiarities of the communicative spaces of Mexico, through language contact between Spanish and numerous Amerindian languages, above all Nahuatl, Mayan or Zapotec, or through the geographical proximity to the USA and the associated direct language border with globally dominant US English. Other languages and/or linguistic varieties of Spanish - especially from Central America - also reach Mexico due to migration, particularly in the metropolitan area of Mexico City, and together with the multilingual contexts mentioned above, they make up Mexico's superdiversity (Vertovec 2005).
At the same time, the social and communicative interaction space of Mexican (ethnic) speakers extends far beyond the political borders of the Republic of Mexico, e.g., to Canada or the United States of America, due to dynamic migration movements and histories. Furthermore, the communicative practices of Mexican speakers are not bound to the analog social space of Mexico, but also interact with others in the digital space.
The international workshop “Los espacios comunicativos de México: Contactos de idiomas, multilingüismo y variaciones lingüísticas / Communicative Spaces of Mexico: Language Contacts, Multilingualism, and Linguistic Variations” is addressed to researchers who would like to participate in developing the state of the art of current and/or historical linguistic phenomena in connection with Spanish and other (e.g., Indigenous) languages in the communicative space of Mexico - which is not only thought of in terms of nation states, but also transnationally.
We welcome contributions that:
- deal with empirical approaches of modern sociolinguistics of Mexican Spanish on a lexical-semantic (e.g., Lara 2010; Cifuentes/Zamundio 2014), morphosyntactic (e.g., Sobrino 2010) and/or phonetic-phonological level (e.g., Moreno de Alba 1994; Martín Butrageño 2013; Uth 2019) or variation-related phenomena of Mexican-Indigenous Languages or other migration-related languages of Mexico,
- deal with language dynamics between Mexican varieties of Spanish and Amerindian languages of Mexico (e.g., Lope Blanch 1969; Zimmermann 2006; Flores Farfán 2008; Michnowitz 2019; Avelino Sierra/Torres Sánchez 2021) or US-American English (e.g., Parodi 2014; Bäumler 2023) or another language and/or variety dynamics on a lexical-semantic, morphosyntactic and/or phonetic-phonological level and identify linguistic interferences into Spanish or from Spanish into other (e.g. Mexican Indigenous) languages,
- and specific case studies that include language policies (e.g., Montemayor Gracia 2017), pragmalinguistic (e.g., Vázquez Laslop/Orozco 2010; Harjus/Mayr 2024), metalinguistic (e.g., Serrano Morales 2008) and/or metalinguistic/ideological approaches (e.g., Harjus/Mayr 2024) - also in the digital space.
Thus, all schools and methodological approaches that have their part in drawing a holistic picture of the current and/or historical (superdiverse) communicative space of Mexico and beyond are welcome. The work presented can therefore be done from a synchronic (e.g., Moreno de Alba 2003) and diachronic perspective (e.g., Barriga/Martín Butrageño 2009-2014) to draw a representative, up-to-date portrait of language and variety dynamics in Mexico and in the Mexican diaspora. A quality-assured publication has been arranged.
Submission Guidelines
Prospect speakers are encouraged to submit abstract proposals, either co-authored or as single authors, that contribute to the general knowledge of the linguistics field and its branches, with a focus on the communicative spaces of Mexico. The presentations can be in Spanish or English, and they may last up to 20 minutes of presentation (plus 10 minutes of discussion). The registration fee is €120, and it includes coffee and snacks, Friday´s Lunch, and the Conference Dinner on Friday night.
The Organizing Committee invites you to submit your proposal(s) (between 350 and 500 words) in English or Spanish (anonymously, in a Word or PDF document). Each participant may submit a maximum of two proposals, one as a single author and one co-authored.
Please submit your proposal before the deadline, 15 December 2024, to the following email address:
