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Tone in Mabia Languages: Structure and Processes
The Decline of French in Education Across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
Etymological Principles and Dialectological Lexicography: Revised Etymologies in the Vocabulary of the Dialect of Lesbos
Aspects of Use of the Modern Lesbian Dialect in the Linguistic Landscape of Mytilene

Journal Description

Languages

Languages is an international, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal on interdisciplinary studies of languages published monthly online by MDPI. The European Society for Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Dialogue (ESTIDIA) is affiliated with Languages and its members receive discounts on the article processing charges.

Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, ESCI (Web of Science), ERIH Plus, and other databases.
Journal Rank: JCR - Q2 (Linguistics) / CiteScore - Q1 (Language and Linguistics)
Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 56.7 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 10.6 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the first half of 2026).
Recognition of Reviewers: Reviewers whose reports are timely and of high quality receive an APC discount voucher for a future publication in an MDPI journal. Become a reviewer.
Journal Cluster of Human Thought and Cultural Expression: Culture, Histories, Humanities, Languages, Literature and Religions.

Impact Factor: 1.3 (2025); 5-Year Impact Factor: 1.3 (2025)

Imprint Information Journal Flyer Open Access ISSN: 2226-471X

Latest Articles

23 pages, 1331 KB

Open AccessArticle

Dialects and Daughter Languages of South Estonian

by Evar Saar and Sulev Iva

Languages 2026, 11(9), 185; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090185 - 10 Sep 2026

South Estonian has traditionally been classified in Estonian dialectology as a dialect group of Estonian, whereas historical-comparative linguistics has increasingly recognised it as an early-diverging Finnic language. At the same time, its contemporary varieties—Võro, Seto, Mulgi, and Tartu—have followed different sociolinguistic trajectories and [...] Read more.

South Estonian has traditionally been classified in Estonian dialectology as a dialect group of Estonian, whereas historical-comparative linguistics has increasingly recognised it as an early-diverging Finnic language. At the same time, its contemporary varieties—Võro, Seto, Mulgi, and Tartu—have followed different sociolinguistic trajectories and are increasingly regarded by their speakers as separate languages. This article presents a conceptual synthesis and qualitative comparative analysis of evidence from historical-comparative linguistics, dialectology, sociolinguistics, and language planning in order to re-evaluate the relationship between historical South Estonian and its contemporary varieties. It argues that South Estonian is best understood as a historical Abstand language, while Võro, Seto, Mulgi, and Tartu are more appropriately regarded as its contemporary daughter languages. This framework reconciles genealogical classification with present-day sociolinguistic realities and provides a more coherent basis for language classification, language standardisation, language planning, and language revitalisation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dialectal Diversity in Estonia: Structure, Change, and Contact)

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19 pages, 601 KB

Open AccessArticle

Agent-First Bias in Children’s Sentence Comprehension: Evidence from Mandarin

by Jiawei Shi, Lihui Zhang, Yurong Li, Jing Li and Peng Zhou

Languages 2026, 11(9), 184; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090184 - 8 Sep 2026

The article investigates children’s agent-first bias in sentence comprehension. Agent-first bias refers to the phenomenon in which children (or adults) tend to assign the agent role to the first noun phrase (NP) in a sentence. Previous studies suggest that children acquiring Indo-European languages [...] Read more.

The article investigates children’s agent-first bias in sentence comprehension. Agent-first bias refers to the phenomenon in which children (or adults) tend to assign the agent role to the first noun phrase (NP) in a sentence. Previous studies suggest that children acquiring Indo-European languages like English exhibit the agent-first bias from early on, while children acquiring other languages may do so only during later stages of language development. However, little is understood about whether children acquiring Mandarin, a language with distinct typological features, also exhibit the agent-first bias. To fill this gap, we conducted two studies to examine children’s thematic role assignment in Mandarin noun–verb (NV) constructions and BEI-passive constructions. In the corpus study, our analysis of the child-directed utterances showed that for NV constructions, the NPs appeared more often as agents than patients, while for BEI-passive constructions, the NPs consistently served as patients. In the experimental study, we examined how 3- to 5-year-old children comprehended the two constructions, using a picture selection task. The results were consistent with the corpus findings. More specifically, when comprehending NV constructions, children as young as age 3 exhibited the agent-first bias, and this bias was stronger in the older children and adults. By contrast, when comprehending BEI-passive constructions, the children tended to interpret the NPs as patients. Taken together, these findings indicate a developmental trajectory of the agent-first bias in Mandarin-speaking children. We discuss these findings in relation to typological features across languages as well as the potential influences of input information and the passive marker BEI on children’s thematic role assignment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Syntax of Child Language)

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24 pages, 1221 KB

Open AccessArticle

Between Decline and Revival: A Case Study of Reading Habits in Võro and Seto

by Mariko Faster and Helen Plado

Languages 2026, 11(9), 183; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090183 - 7 Sep 2026

This study examines reading opportunities and practices in the Võro and Seto languages in the context of ongoing language shift and limited intergenerational transmission. Literacy in local languages is important for language revitalisation. Minority-language literacy, especially where majority-language societies have high literacy, expands [...] Read more.

This study examines reading opportunities and practices in the Võro and Seto languages in the context of ongoing language shift and limited intergenerational transmission. Literacy in local languages is important for language revitalisation. Minority-language literacy, especially where majority-language societies have high literacy, expands the functional domains of the language, enhances its prestige, and provides additional input for language learning, especially where oral transmission is weakening. The aim of the study is to map existing reading opportunities in Võro and Seto (including books, newspapers, magazines, and social media) and to analyse how these resources are used, with particular attention to reading activities involving children and the reasons for non-use. The study is based on a survey conducted via LimeSurvey in 2025 among adults. The questionnaire included 36 questions covering demographics, language use, reading habits, and cultural participation. The results show that reading opportunities in Võro and Seto are primarily based on two newspapers, books and social media content. Respondents who have studied these languages in courses or at school demonstrate better reading skills. Võro and Seto proficiency is present in society, and reading in these languages is gradually improving. In contrast, reading aloud to children emerges as a potentially important but underused practice. Children’s limited reading ability is partly related to insufficient language proficiency. The findings suggest that reading aloud to children and book reading among adults may contribute to language maintenance and function as mechanisms for language revitalisation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dialectal Diversity in Estonia: Structure, Change, and Contact)

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28 pages, 2453 KB

Open AccessArticle

Is L2 the Least Stable System? The Dynamics of VOT Trilingual Production in Polish–English–Norwegian Read and Spontaneous Speech

by Zuzanna Cal

Languages 2026, 11(9), 182; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090182 - 31 Aug 2026

This study analyses the production of voiceless and voiced plosives (/p, t, k, b, d, g/) in both read and spontaneous speech produced by L1 Polish, L2 English, L3 Norwegian multilingual learners and native control speakers. The goal is to examine whether L2/L3 [...] Read more.

This study analyses the production of voiceless and voiced plosives (/p, t, k, b, d, g/) in both read and spontaneous speech produced by L1 Polish, L2 English, L3 Norwegian multilingual learners and native control speakers. The goal is to examine whether L2/L3 learners maintain distinct phonological categories in all their languages or exhibit cross-linguistic influence, as well as to identify which voicing series and places of articulation are most susceptible to the interference. Moreover, the study seeks to integrate acoustic data with extralinguistic factors, such as proficiency, exposure, frequency of use and age of acquisition, to provide a deeper understanding of the dynamic coexistence of three phonological systems both in controlled and more authentic environments. The study reveals significant L1 and L3 influence on L2 stop production, especially in the voiced series of stops, and more target-like L1 and L3 production. Full article

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16 pages, 369 KB

Open AccessArticle

Phase Asymmetry in Mandarin Chinese Nominals

by Liumao Zhong

Languages 2026, 11(9), 181; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090181 - 31 Aug 2026

This paper argues that nominal domains in Mandarin Chinese instantiate phases and exhibit the characteristic asymmetry between edge and complement. Evidence comes from both binding asymmetry and raising asymmetry. A possessor can bind the logophor ziji only when it occupies the highest position [...] Read more.

This paper argues that nominal domains in Mandarin Chinese instantiate phases and exhibit the characteristic asymmetry between edge and complement. Evidence comes from both binding asymmetry and raising asymmetry. A possessor can bind the logophor ziji only when it occupies the highest position within the nominal domain, indicating that only this position is accessible to higher discourse-related structure. In addition, possessor raising is sensitive to the A/A’ status of the nominal edge, and therefore indicates successive-cyclic movement through the nominal edge. These findings reveal a robust asymmetry within the nominal domain: elements at the edge remain visible to higher operations, while those within the complement domain are inaccessible. This pattern supports the conclusion that Mandarin nominals constitute phases. Full article

17 pages, 818 KB

Open AccessArticle

Children’s Language Use on the Playground: Peer Interaction and Language Policy in Practice in Kazakhstan

by Dinara Tlepbergen, Assel Akzhigitova and Anastassia Zabrodskaja

Languages 2026, 11(9), 180; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090180 - 30 Aug 2026

This study examines children’s language use in spontaneous playground interaction in Kazakhstan, focusing on how language choice varies across play activities and how these practices relate to family language orientations. The study uses non-participant observation and audio recordings of nine playgroup sessions involving [...] Read more.

This study examines children’s language use in spontaneous playground interaction in Kazakhstan, focusing on how language choice varies across play activities and how these practices relate to family language orientations. The study uses non-participant observation and audio recordings of nine playgroup sessions involving 23 children aged 4–9, complemented by caregiver questionnaires. The analysis follows an interactional approach and uses qualitative coding in MAXQDA. The findings show variability in language use across the observed play sessions and communicative functions. In cooperative and structured play, Kazakh accounted for the largest proportion of coded utterances in both observed sessions, whereas competitive and physically oriented play showed a more variable distribution of Kazakh, Russian, and mixed-language utterances. At the utterance level, the strongest co-occurrence patterns for Kazakh were observed with agreement, initiation, and negotiation, whereas Russian showed stronger co-occurrence with accusation, claim, and protest. Comparison with caregiver reports shows partial correspondence between reported family language practices and observed playground language use, suggesting that peer language practices are not simply direct reflections of family language orientations. From a language policy perspective, the study shows that playgrounds constitute an important site where state and family language policy are enacted and negotiated in everyday practice. By focusing on children’s agency in informal peer settings, the study contributes to research on family language policy, language socialization, and language policy “from below”. Full article

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34 pages, 2305 KB

Open AccessArticle

Pragmatic Variation in Greeting and Farewell Formulae in Rural Austria

by Katharina Korecky-Kröll, Anja Wittibschlager and Amelie Dorn

Languages 2026, 11(9), 179; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090179 - 28 Aug 2026

Greeting and farewell formulae are highly conventionalized routines that index social relations, regional norms and situational formality. This paper investigates pragmatic variation in greetings and farewells in rural Austria, focusing on age, region, setting and prosodic design. We analyze greeting and farewell formulae [...] Read more.

Greeting and farewell formulae are highly conventionalized routines that index social relations, regional norms and situational formality. This paper investigates pragmatic variation in greetings and farewells in rural Austria, focusing on age, region, setting and prosodic design. We analyze greeting and farewell formulae and metalinguistic comments produced by 152 adults from 13 rural locations across two project phases. The dataset combines spontaneous interactions with controlled elicitations in two greeting experiments contrasting a formal urban service encounter and an informal local dialect encounter. In spontaneous greetings, the supraregional call formula hallo predominates and is significantly rarer among older speakers. Across age groups, participants strongly preferred grüß Gott in the formal urban store scenario and griaß di in the informal local bakery scenario. Pronominal address is largely avoided, with T forms restricted mainly to western locations and familiar contexts. Prosodically, participants use [ˈhalo] and [haˈloː] at similar rates, whereas interviewers strongly favor the marked variant [haˈloː], suggesting different interactional roles in greeting management. Older speakers produce significantly more metalinguistic comments, revealing a mismatch between politeness ideologies and recorded practice. Overall, the findings reveal age-graded and context-dependent patterns of pragmatic variation in rural Austria. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Variationist Linguistics on German—Focus on Lexis and Pragmatics)

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25 pages, 361 KB

Open AccessArticle

Technology-Supported Japanese Learning in Pre-Departure Migration Preparation: Learning Challenges and Digital Practices Among Vietnam’s Japan-Bound Technical Intern Trainees

by Van Hong Nghiem, Lan Anh Thi Nguyen and Nam Hoang Tran

Languages 2026, 11(9), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090178 - 28 Aug 2026

Technical intern trainees (TITs) preparing to depart for Japan study Japanese within a compressed four- to six-month pre-departure period, during which they must acquire language skills for workplace communication, daily life, and social adaptation. This cross-sectional study examined Japanese-learning challenges and technology use [...] Read more.

Technical intern trainees (TITs) preparing to depart for Japan study Japanese within a compressed four- to six-month pre-departure period, during which they must acquire language skills for workplace communication, daily life, and social adaptation. This cross-sectional study examined Japanese-learning challenges and technology use among Vietnam’s Japan-bound TITs, with working adults studying Japanese in Vietnam included as an unmatched descriptive benchmark rather than as a matched control group. Data were collected through an online self-administered questionnaire using snowball sampling. The study relied on self-reported data from 91 Vietnamese Japanese-language learners, including TITs (n = 44) enrolled in preparatory courses at training centers in Hanoi and working adults (n = 47) from diverse professional backgrounds. Overall, 57.1% of respondents reported high technology use, defined as using online tools for Japanese learning daily or multiple times daily. Smartphones were the dominant learning device, while YouTube, Mazii, ChatGPT, and social media were the most frequently used platforms. Technology was used mainly for vocabulary, listening, grammar, and Kanji learning. Major challenges included difficulty with Kanji, complex grammar structures, similar grammar patterns, unclear learning pathways, lack of correction or feedback, and distraction during self-study. Several learning-behavior variables showed associations with high technology use in unadjusted analyses, but these associations did not remain statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Exploratory regression suggested a possible relationship between perceived effectiveness and high technology use, although the estimate was imprecise. The findings suggest that technology-supported Japanese learning for TITs may benefit from moving beyond scattered use of digital tools toward mobile-friendly, structured, feedback-rich learning pathways aligned with practical workplace and daily-life communication needs in Japan. Full article

23 pages, 2487 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Acquisition of Verb Argument Realization in Mandarin Chinese

by Shu Yang and Jidong Chen

Languages 2026, 11(9), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090177 - 27 Aug 2026

Discourse-information structure has been found to shape the realization of verb argument structure. This study investigates the effects of grammatical roles, information status, and animacy of verb arguments on verb argument realization in the speech of Mandarin-speaking children, in comparison with that of [...] Read more.

Discourse-information structure has been found to shape the realization of verb argument structure. This study investigates the effects of grammatical roles, information status, and animacy of verb arguments on verb argument realization in the speech of Mandarin-speaking children, in comparison with that of their caregivers. The data are drawn from two naturalistic longitudinal corpora of two monolingual Mandarin-learning children (ages 1;07–3;09). All verb arguments were coded for core grammatical roles (Agent, Subject, Object), information status (given vs. new), and animacy (animate vs. inanimate). The results indicate that both child and adult speech generally conform to PAS: the preferred quantity of lexical arguments or new information is no more than one, new and lexical arguments tend to often occur in the Object role, and Agents tend to be given and non-lexical. Children’s and caregivers’ speech are thus shaped by similar discourse-pragmatic factors, though adherence to some constraints varies across dyads and constraints, likely reflecting differences in interactional contexts, caregiver input, and children’s developmental status. These findings suggest that Mandarin-acquiring children are sensitive to discourse-pragmatic constraints in argument realization from early on, aligning with discourse-pragmatic probabilistic approaches to language acquisition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue East Asian Perspectives on the Acquisition of Argument Structure)

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22 pages, 1365 KB

Open AccessArticle

Non-Prototypical Heritage Speakers: Italian as L2 in a Sri Lankan Community

by Margherita Di Salvo

Languages 2026, 11(9), 176; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090176 - 25 Aug 2026

This case study investigates specific language phenomena and dominance patterns among second-generation speakers of Sri Lankan origin in Naples within the framework of the HELLO Campania Project. While second generations are typically assumed to be dominant in the societal majority language, the Sri [...] Read more.

This case study investigates specific language phenomena and dominance patterns among second-generation speakers of Sri Lankan origin in Naples within the framework of the HELLO Campania Project. While second generations are typically assumed to be dominant in the societal majority language, the Sri Lankan community—characterized by exceptionally high rates of heritage language maintenance—offers a critical testing ground for this assumption. Drawing on a corpus of sociolinguistic interviews with first- and second-generation speakers, the analysis focuses on two morphosyntactic variables that function as indicators of acquisitional development in Italian as L2: verbal morphology and the realization of definite and indefinite articles. Verbal forms were classified along a four-stage developmental scale derived from research on Italian interlanguage, while article use was evaluated through a three-level accuracy scale. Descriptive and inferential statistics reveal a clear asymmetry within the second generation specifically in terms of gender variable. Male speakers display near-native competence consistent with the expected dominance shift toward Italian. In contrast, several female speakers exhibit persistent features—such as infinitive overextension, auxiliary omission in perfective constructions, and residual article omission—patterns more typical of first stages of second-language acquisition than of heritage-speaker dominance. These findings suggest that, in contexts of strong heritage language maintenance and dense ethnic social networks, second-generation speakers may experience incomplete acquisition of the majority language rather than incomplete acquisition of the heritage language. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the importance of integrating perceptual self-reports with production data. Theoretically, it challenges universalist assumptions about second-generation dominance and underscores the need for community-specific, migration-scenario-based analyses in heritage language research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Italy: New Issues and Perspectives)

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16 pages, 471 KB

Open AccessArticle

Perceiving Grammar Through Ideology: Exploring Deaf Perspectives on ASL Word Order Acceptability

by Emily Jo Noschese and Chao Wang

Languages 2026, 11(9), 175; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11090175 - 24 Aug 2026

This quantitative study explores divergent beliefs about word order in American Sign Language (ASL) within the U.S. Deaf community. Although the academic literature commonly characterizes ASL as following a Subject–Verb–Object (SVO) structure, certain Deaf individuals maintain that ASL predominantly uses a Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) [...] Read more.

This quantitative study explores divergent beliefs about word order in American Sign Language (ASL) within the U.S. Deaf community. Although the academic literature commonly characterizes ASL as following a Subject–Verb–Object (SVO) structure, certain Deaf individuals maintain that ASL predominantly uses a Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) order. This perception reflects an ideological positioning of ASL as fundamentally distinct from English and may align with community norms that have historically emphasized SOV structures. Data were collected through an acceptability judgment task with 53 varied sentence structures presented via video. Among 86 Deaf participants, distinct preferences emerged based on ASL acquisition background. Participants with early ASL exposure from Deaf parents preferred the SOV structure, while those with early ASL exposure from hearing parents preferred the SVO structure. This finding suggests that variability in beliefs about acceptable ASL word order, along with factors such as early language exposure and parental input, influences judgments of acceptability. Full article

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20 pages, 352 KB

Open AccessArticle

Three Generations, Two Languages, One Family: The Case of Turkish in France

by Mehmet-Ali Akinci

Languages 2026, 11(8), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080174 - 19 Aug 2026

According to recent estimates, France is home to approximately 700,000 individuals of Turkish origin, encompassing first-, second-, and third-generation immigrants. Scholars have extensively investigated the language practices, maintenance, and shift, as well as the cultural practices and identity construction, of Turkish migrant families [...] Read more.

According to recent estimates, France is home to approximately 700,000 individuals of Turkish origin, encompassing first-, second-, and third-generation immigrants. Scholars have extensively investigated the language practices, maintenance, and shift, as well as the cultural practices and identity construction, of Turkish migrant families in France, employing both sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic approaches. However, the majority of these studies have examined family members in isolation, focusing separately on young children, adolescents, or parents. The present study aims to investigate language use, choice, and maintenance, as well as identity construction, across three generations of Turkish immigrants in France. Data were collected from two Turkish families, one in the Rouen region and the other in the Paris region: the first family consists of a father, his daughter, and his granddaughter, while the second family includes a mother, her daughter, and her granddaughter. To do this, we used questionnaires and semi-structured interviews tailored to each of the three generations. The data were subsequently analyzed through content analysis. The paper addresses the following interconnected research questions: (i) What intergenerational differences exist within the same family regarding language use and choice, as well as linguistic competence in L1 (Turkish) and L2 (French)? (ii) How do bilinguals’ language choices and usage relate to the construction of family members’ identities? (iii) Is there evidence of language attrition among third-generation immigrants? (iv) Is there evidence of an ongoing language shift toward L2 within Turkish families? The findings indicate robust maintenance of Turkish, even among the third generation. While the first generation predominantly uses Turkish, both the second and third generations identify themselves as bilingual and exhibit positive attitudes toward both languages. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Migrant to Heritage Languages: Transgenerational Language Change in Diasporic Communities)

16 pages, 546 KB

Open AccessArticle

Hard Choices: Sound Change in Northern Greek

by Cleo Condoravdi and Paul Kiparsky

Languages 2026, 11(8), 173; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080173 - 17 Aug 2026

We propose a new account of the change from -Vsis, -Vzis to -Vi̯s in Modern Lesbian, as well as of related changes in other Northern Greek dialects, arguing that they are special cases of the loss of unstressed high vowels. Our analysis depends [...] Read more.

We propose a new account of the change from -Vsis, -Vzis to -Vi̯s in Modern Lesbian, as well as of related changes in other Northern Greek dialects, arguing that they are special cases of the loss of unstressed high vowels. Our analysis depends on the new understanding of the nature of sound change that nonlinear phonology and Optimality Theory jointly make available. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Modern Dialect of Lesbos: Selected Topics)

8 pages, 520 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Dialects of Lesvos and Adrianople: Similarities and Differences and What They Tell Us About Dialectal Variation in Greek

by Brian D. Joseph

Languages 2026, 11(8), 172; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080172 - 17 Aug 2026

The Greek dialects of Lesvos and Adrianople (present-day Edirne) during the time of the Ottoman Empire have much in common. Both are northern dialects and show considerable influence from Turkish; moreover, both were documented in the early 20th century, before the fall of [...] Read more.

The Greek dialects of Lesvos and Adrianople (present-day Edirne) during the time of the Ottoman Empire have much in common. Both are northern dialects and show considerable influence from Turkish; moreover, both were documented in the early 20th century, before the fall of the Ottoman Empire, by Kretschmer, in 1905, for Lesvos and by Ronzevalle, in 1911, for Adrianople. A comparative look at the two dialects reveals deep penetration of Turkish into their respective lexicons, with consequences for their phonology, and for Adrianople, into aspects of its grammar too. I focus here on a phonological matter, namely the conditions under which voiced stops (D) occur. Kretschmer’s song recordings from Lesvos show D only after full nasals (N), i.e., in ND clusters, while later documentation, Newton 1972, shows no nasality, with only D as the realization, even in words with ND earlier. Adrianople Greek shows intervocalic D but also ND clusters, only in Turkish loans and always matching the consonantism of the Turkish source; such is the case too in ND/D variation in rebetika songs from Istanbul. This suggests that the issue really involves a kind of dialect mixing, and it is argued that this holds even for Lesvos, and even for sociolinguistically coded variation. Thus, bringing Adrianople Greek into consideration clarifies the nature of voiced stop realizations in Lesvos phonology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Modern Dialect of Lesbos: Selected Topics)

19 pages, 4377 KB

Open AccessArticle

Economy, Security and Sovereignty: Comparative Populist Rhetoric of Le Pen, Meloni and Weidel on X

by Ana Yara Postigo-Fuentes and Jose Bernardo Berna Alvarado

Languages 2026, 11(8), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080171 - 15 Aug 2026

This article analyses how three leading female figures of the European far right—Marine Le Pen (France), Giorgia Meloni (Italy), and Alice Weidel (Germany)—construct populist discourse on X (formerly Twitter) during recent high-stakes election campaigns. The analysis is based on a corpus of 1053 [...] Read more.

This article analyses how three leading female figures of the European far right—Marine Le Pen (France), Giorgia Meloni (Italy), and Alice Weidel (Germany)—construct populist discourse on X (formerly Twitter) during recent high-stakes election campaigns. The analysis is based on a corpus of 1053 posts published in the month preceding the 2022 French presidential elections, the 2022 Italian general elections, and the 2025 German federal elections. Methodologically, it combines content analysis (operationalised through a codebook developed in Atlas.ti v23), Critical Discourse Analysis, and comparative analysis to identify dominant issues, campaign strategies, and underlying discursive structures. Adopting a corpus-pragmatic perspective, the study undertakes a pragmatic examination of implicit meaning—presupposition, implication, and implicature—to show how meaning is conveyed in authentic, digitally mediated political data. The findings reveal a shared populist communicative matrix centred on polarisation, simplification, and emotional mobilisation, alongside important national variations. Le Pen and Meloni primarily construct an “internal traitor” among political elites, linking economic and social grievances to elite failure. In contrast, Weidel recentres migration and security, portraying migrants as a direct threat and mainstream parties as responsible for citizens’ insecurity. The article highlights the need for further research on gender and leadership in the contemporary European far right. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Corpus Pragmatics: Investigating Language Use in Context)

21 pages, 706 KB

Open AccessArticle

Historical and New Minority Languages in Italian Educational Contexts: Practices, Challenges, and Ideologies

by Ilaria Fiorentini

Languages 2026, 11(8), 170; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080170 - 13 Aug 2026

This paper focuses on historical and new linguistic minorities in educational contexts in Italy. It argues that, despite increasing multilingualism, the Italian educational system remains shaped by a persistent monolingual ideology. Drawing on data from two research projects, La classe plurilingue (2018–2020) and [...] Read more.

This paper focuses on historical and new linguistic minorities in educational contexts in Italy. It argues that, despite increasing multilingualism, the Italian educational system remains shaped by a persistent monolingual ideology. Drawing on data from two research projects, La classe plurilingue (2018–2020) and MinEdu—Supporting Minority Languages in Educational Contexts (2023–2026), it examines how different forms of multilingualism, both of which can be framed within a heritage language profile, are managed across educational settings. The analysis highlights a fundamental asymmetry: while historical minority languages are institutionally recognized but internally contested (particularly with respect to standardization), languages associated with migration are largely marginalized. The paper argues that both phenomena can be understood within a broader ideological framework described as “monolingualism within multilingualism”, and calls for a rethinking of language education policies in Italy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Languages in Italy: New Issues and Perspectives)

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18 pages, 7888 KB

Open AccessArticle

Between “Threatened” and “Endangered”—The Validity of Vitality Labels

by Nala H. Lee, Chuen-Shin Yong and Miguel Escobar Varela

Languages 2026, 11(8), 169; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080169 - 13 Aug 2026

Language vitality scales are commonly used in language documentation, yet assumptions behind labels such as “threatened” and “endangered” are often taken for granted. This study adopts a computational-based approach to disciplinary discourse analysis, examining how linguists deploy “threatened” and “endangered,” terms that appear [...] Read more.

Language vitality scales are commonly used in language documentation, yet assumptions behind labels such as “threatened” and “endangered” are often taken for granted. This study adopts a computational-based approach to disciplinary discourse analysis, examining how linguists deploy “threatened” and “endangered,” terms that appear on vitality scales, across scholarly discourse. We compared vocabulary and thematic content in “threatened” and “endangered” texts using TF-IDF, topic modeling, and similarity metrics, with other linguistic terms providing contextual benchmarks. Keyword analysis shows that “threatened” and “endangered” index related but distinct orientations within linguistic research. Writing on “endangered” languages more frequently centers on documentation, archiving, and institutional research practices, while writing on “threatened” languages places greater emphasis on language vitality and ongoing sociolinguistic change. The magnitude of their difference is contextualized by contrasting “threatened” and “endangered” with other conceptual pairs within linguistics and beyond. The findings suggest that “threatened” and “endangered”, which are consecutive labels on the Language Endangerment Index, are more closely related than distinct theoretical constructs but less related than near-overlapping linguistic terms. Overall, the results demonstrate that these terms, as deployed in disciplinary practice, capture systematic distinctions in how linguistic situations are understood. Methodologically, this paper shows how computational analysis can be used as a reflexive research tool that enables us to better understand disciplinary discourse. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Methods in Endangered Language Documentation)

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5 pages, 186 KB

Open AccessEditorial

Advances in Heritage Russian Bilingualism Across the Lifespan: An Introduction to the Special Issue

by Oksana Laleko and Tanya Ivanova-Sullivan

Languages 2026, 11(8), 168; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080168 - 11 Aug 2026

Research on Russian as a heritage language has played a central role in the development of heritage language studies [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heritage Russian Bilingualism across the Lifespan)

21 pages, 2107 KB

Open AccessArticle

Stress Perception in European Portuguese by Naïve Mandarin Listeners

by Kexin Zhang and João Veloso

Languages 2026, 11(8), 167; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080167 - 11 Aug 2026

Can listeners whose native language lacks contrastive lexical stress identify stress in an unfamiliar language? We addressed this question with native Mandarin Chinese listeners, whose L1 marks lexical contrasts with tone, and European Portuguese (EP), whose stress system relies mainly on vowel-quality and [...] Read more.

Can listeners whose native language lacks contrastive lexical stress identify stress in an unfamiliar language? We addressed this question with native Mandarin Chinese listeners, whose L1 marks lexical contrasts with tone, and European Portuguese (EP), whose stress system relies mainly on vowel-quality and durational cues. Twenty listeners with no knowledge of Portuguese heard 30 trisyllabic EP words and indicated, for each word, which syllable sounded most prominent. Overall accuracy was modestly but reliably above chance (46.9%; chance = 33.3%), but it was carried almost entirely by words with initial (antepenultimate) stress, and responses showed a strong overall preference for the initial syllable. Once this positional bias was modeled explicitly, relative duration was the only reliable acoustic predictor of listeners’ responses, with an additional contribution of syllable weight, whereas F0 and intensity showed no independent effects; the durational effect was robust to controlling for intrinsic vowel duration. These findings indicate partial, but clearly non-native-like, sensitivity to EP prominence: listeners recruited duration, a prominence cue productive in Mandarin and the main lexical cue remaining in EP for listeners who cannot exploit vowel-quality contrasts, while apparently disregarding F0, which their L1 binds to lexical tone. The results bear on the debate about prominence in Mandarin and show, methodologically, that positional response biases must be modeled before cue weighting can be interpreted. Full article

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Function Words Production and Williams Syndrome in Catalan and Spanish

by Alícia Paulet-Prats, Lluís Barceló-Coblijn and Elga Cremades

Languages 2026, 11(8), 166; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages11080166 - 7 Aug 2026

This study examines the use of function words in adult individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) compared to typically developing (TD) speakers, focusing on spontaneous speech in Catalan and Spanish. The aim is to assess both quantitative and qualitative aspects of function word production [...] Read more.

This study examines the use of function words in adult individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) compared to typically developing (TD) speakers, focusing on spontaneous speech in Catalan and Spanish. The aim is to assess both quantitative and qualitative aspects of function word production and to explore whether WS is associated with distinct grammatical processing patterns. The corpus consisted of 20 five-minute transcripts, equally divided by language (Catalan/Spanish) and group (WS/TD). Analyses included counts of function word categories, error types, and mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLUm). Statistical procedures (t-tests, ANOVA, Mann–Whitney tests, and MANOVA with bootstrapping) were applied depending on distributional assumptions. Results showed significant differences between WS and TD groups in several categories, including prepositions, conjunctions, definite articles, numerals, adverbs, and relative pronouns, with large effect sizes in some cases. MLUm was also significantly lower in the WS group. In contrast, no significant effects of language or interaction between language and group were found. These findings indicate that WS has a robust impact on grammatical usage, particularly affecting function words, independently of language. On the whole, the results support the view that WS is associated with atypical linguistic profiles and contribute cross-linguistic evidence from Romance languages, highlighting the need for further research on language processing in this population. Full article

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