• acquired a thorough understanding of the dimensions of variation and diversity found in language(s), through the study of both regional and social varieties of Dutch, and ethnolects and heritage languages;
• acquired (new) techniques for analyzing variation;
• learned to apply these techniques to natural language data; 
• learned to contribute linguistic expert knowledge to the standard language debates which are cropping up in all European countries and which are becoming increasingly non-factual and hysterical.     

Languages vary internally and they are constantly changing. The changes involved are either due to internal factors, and related to patterns of regional and social variation, or they are due to external factors, such as the presence of another language within the speech community. In this course you will learn how these two types of change interact, and how they can be modelled coherently within sophisticated theoretical and statistical frameworks. 
 

The focus of this course will be on the tension between standard languages (especially Netherlandic Dutch) and ethnolects (ethnic varieties of Dutch), as well as heritage languages (the traditional language varieties spoken by immigrant groups, but modified in the Dutch context). How do they emerge? What are their features? How are they perceived and evaluated? How do they interact with regional and social varieties of Dutch and with the languages spoken in the countries from which migrants came? Will regional and ethnolectal features continue to enter into the standard language? Also: why is it that standard languages are becoming increasingly variable, and why does that frighten and annoy both expert and lay users? 

Although the focus in this course is on variation in (standard) Dutch, the scope is much wider on account of the different nationalities and ethnicities of the students participating in it. Students and teachers all contribute their personal experiences with their local (standard) language dynamics, in debates which ultimately reveal that in spite of linguistic diversity... there are so many patterns we all agree on.