iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

RT with your home river Macatawa River, meaning "black water" in Ojibwe, and classified as a "stream in Michigan" lol. But you can kayak along it all the way to the Big Lake, and pass a cute little windmill along the way.

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

You can find me at the ASS VILLAGE

Sign that says “A & S Village” but the ampersand looks like the S

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Here's the isoglosses for the NCS. The upshot is: it's much broader than just Michigan, but Michigan is the central area where DRESS is lower than TRAP and COT is fronter than center. (that little tail follows the old Rte 66 down to St Louis) (15/n)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Okay. So the Northern Cities Shift (NCS for short) is a pattern of vowel shifts that are common in the Great Lakes area. There are 6, but the most important are the /æ/ vowel (the sound in "trap"), which is raised and often diphthongized, and the /ɑ/ vowel (sound in "cot"), which is fronted. (14/)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

So we can plot a speaker's entire vowel space. In this case, I'm showing 7 vowels that are the most important for identifying Michigan English. I'll get to that in a second - the point here is to show that every speaker has a range for each vowel, but also a clear pattern of how the vowels relate.

A Michigan speaker's Northern Cities Shift vowels

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Okay. Then we're going to take those F1 (Formant 1) and F2 values, and plot them. We put the axes going backwards, so that the result can match the shape of a vowel space, if we imagine a face facing left. So [i] is the vowel where your tongue is frontest and highest. [ɑ] is low and back. (12/n)

General English vowel space, with a head pointing left

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

So let's zoom into one of those areas of dark bands. I'll highlight the first and second formants - those are the most important for vowel pronunciation. You can see I highlighted about 1/3 of the way through the vowel (red dashed line), and a Hz value is shown on the left (for the 1st formant)

First and second formants highlighted in green; Hz values recorded to the right.

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

So let's take a 2 word phrase. The top here shows the waveform - this will be familiar to most of you. The bottom is the spectrogram - it's a Fourier transform of the waveform. It shows us where energy is concentrated - those dark bands ("formants") show us where the vowels are. (10/n)

A waveform of a phrase (top) with its spectrogram (Fourier transform) below)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

So anyway, we collect all these isoglosses, and see where they bundle. Some will be right on top of each other, others will be a little farther away. But the upshot is: we take the bundle of isoglosses and call that the dialect boundary. (6/n)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

The way dialectologists define dialect areas is with bundles of isoglosses. An isogloss is a line between one dialect feature and another. So for instance: let's pretend this red line is the line between where people say "firefly" and where they say "lightning bug" (4/n)

A blank map of the USA with a red line drawn sort of through Minnesota, Illinois, Kentucky, Virginia

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

This might have been more recognizable if I had brought my colored pencils with me to work but 🤷🏼‍♀️ BEHOLD THE QUEEN

A silly pen sketch of an anise hyssop plant wearing a crown and covered in pollinators

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Amazing! My version of this: left a pumpkin out too long after Halloween, now I’m growing my own 🎃

A pumpkin plant growing at the foot of our front steps. A single yellow flower poking through the middle shows we’ll get at least one pumpkin this fall!

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

lol please enjoy the entirety of my chat history with microsoft copilot

Chat history. The only entry says "how the fuck do i disable copilot"

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Not to brag but I had a dazzling shower and musical mirror this morning - best day of #NWAV53??

A sign on my hotel shower: “Webers dazzling shower and musical mirror” (the shower was normal, the mirror has speakers that can pair w Bluetooth)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

RR gets *more* formal (more stylistic fronting) in 2009 after the economic crash - the opposite direction from her political party #NWAV53

Slide showing how RR did a hyperadaption of prestige forms in 2009 - just as she comes under scrutiny by other members of her party

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Kiesling compares self-reported data from 2004 and 2023 - finding: 1) ppl use “dude” more with more close interlocutors 2) whether you’re talking w a man v woman matters less now (both similarly likely to be called “dude”) #NWAV53

Plot showing the effect of addressee gender and “rank” (friend, sibling, partner, stranger), comparing 2004 (solid lines) and 2023 (dashed lines)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

“Dude” originally an insult (from “yankee doodle” in the 1880s), remaining w negative association in the 1940s/50s for zoot suiters #NWAV53

Dude originally an insult derived from “yankee doodle dandy”

Used derogatorily to describe zoot suiters in the 40s

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

PVI (a measure of syllable vs stress timed speech - higher = more stress timed) Spkrs w more social groupings (eg friends from School, Home, Work) have higher PVI. regression on white spkrs also shows higher density networks = more stress timed #NWAV53

Plot showing speakers’ PVI by number of social network groupings. 3 and 4 groupings = higher PVI than 2 groups of friends

Plot showing esp white speakers (blue line) show more stress time when they have denser social networks

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

New day, new timeline cleanse. This time: names my toddler (3;0) has given her stuffies. She did this all on her own. I give you: Snow Leopard of the Valley

A small leopard stuffy sitting on a couch

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Not just bees! We also made friends with this moth #bloomscrolling

A moth on some rudbeckia (black eyed Susan)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Look at this absolute unit hanging out on my bee balm #bloomscrolling

Some huge bee (carpenter???) on a bright pink bee balm flower

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

This guy was sleeping in my phlox one morning #bloomscrolling

Carpenter bee (I think) asleep in the middle of some pink phlox

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Timeline cleanse: some lil friends I made in my garden recently. #bloomscrolling

A big ole bee (bumble? Carpenter? I’m not sure) on a marigold

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

lol @ the editors of Washington post not knowing that “in community” is a phrase

Screen shot of a Washington post social media post with the quote “it’s redefining how you can be in [a] community”

(About a group of people in Washington DC that walk around while listening to audio books together)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Charlotte Vaughn talking about doing linguistic experiments in a museum setting - have to switch the priority from “get good data” to engaging and connecting w the public - lots of incredible tips!!

Examples of starting “small” - even a small start has big impacts

Slide showing some results from Vaughn & Becker (2024): how speakers of different ages interpret sociolinguistic meaning

Slide with the main point: “our participants are datapoints but first and foremost they’re people”

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Minnie Quartey Annan dropping serious insights into doing successful sociolinguistic fieldwork - spoiler: be open and listen to your participants! What’s meaningful to *them*?

Slide saying: Lessons learned while working on two different field projects

* know your intention and purpose of the research but be flexible
* communities define things differently … be open to understanding those community dynamics
* do not underestimate your network or the power of social media / social connections
* be okay talking to strangers. Know enough to start a conversation
* have some questions but do not have all the answers. .. for your research and interviews/surveys
* find someone who is already in the community before you start your work

More lessons learned while working on two different field projects
* use the data you have to support the case you are making, especially with fieldwork
* when entering institutions, it is best to have an IN, but if you cannot, used LinkedIn to get in! (Find leaders with common interests)
* allow the community to speak to you, but be willing to listen. Research questions must be fluid not final especially at the beginning
* do not assume everyone in your study has the same feelings about everything in your study
* understand the positionality as a researcher in that community … don’t underestimate its effect

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Annette D’Onofrio on the meaning of place in slx studies - advocating for an iterative approach to defining the speech community, the linguistic variables.

Annette presenting on Zoom “the Chicagoland language project: insights on neighborhood studies in sociolinguistics”

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

@robindodsworth.bsky.social out here revolutionizing the way we think about social networks and their role in spreading linguistic variation (as a “complex contagion”). I don’t have enough space to say how cool this work is.

Robin showing some vowel changes in Raleigh that differ by ethnicity (how? Via social network)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

@crfarrington.bsky.social speaking abt the incredible Frank Porter Graham corpus - annual recordings with kids from age 4-20 (!!!). This is my favorite plot - AAE dialect density across age. Check out the peak in middle and high school - adolescents doing social identity work!

Charlie in front of a graph showing a sine wave shaped plot of dialect density measure: kids get a lil more standard in grades 1-4, then more vernacular in grades 5-10, then more standard again

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Holliday & Fisher (ft cameo from RA Nandani): talking abt challenges wrt connecting to schools (during covid!) - it’s hard work to get the right buy in from admin, teachers & students!

Sabriya and Nicole sharing some of the outcomes of their research

Nandani talking about differences between Philly vs Boston students’ rates of African American English features

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Last year my cilantro went to seed immediately so I couldn’t eat it 😢 That became this volunteer driveway cilantro 🌿 (part shade! Much better conditions for it), which I DID get to eat But also it went to seed and I got to harvest enough coriander to last the year. Gardens are amazing!!!

A dried cilantro growing in the crack between the driveway and the house

A hand shaking the coriander seeds off the ends of the dried plant

A hand holding a lot of coriander. Some more is drying on a paper towel in the background

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

The internet tells me that H. Sacks invented Conversation Analysis. The lecture collection includes this pic of him. I'm excited to dive in to the promised "great variety of topics, from suicide to children's games to Medieval Hell as a nemonic device to pronouns and paradoxes"

A black and white image of a young man in a striped t-shirt, looking off to the right. Maybe he's on a boat?

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

And this guy’s resting up for his light show tonight

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Made a new friend tonight. See? Instant warm fuzzies

A bumblebee flying around a bright pink bee balm flower

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Two weeks ago the road construction put the topsoil back on our easement. So I went on a bender turning it into a (mostly natives) garden. Every night I watch the fireflies out my window and get warm fuzzies even if my day sucked

A garden in the easement (the lawn between the sidewalk and the street). There’s a path of woodchips through the middle, with a little herb garden in front and flowers in the back

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

We have street construction (still!) which means most of us park in the big lot across the cross street. Which means most of us are jaywalking across that street a couple times a day.

Viewpoint from my 2nd floor window, showing a hole in the street right in front of my house (and my car subsequently trapped in our driveway for a couple of hours)

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Found it! From Conversations with Strangers: "I continued the radical politics of my college years, but without the caution needed in the commercial world. I lost one editorial position [...] when I left subscription lists for The Daily Worker on my desk at Drug Trade News"

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Also, in looking for it, came across this email exchange w Bill about a poster we coauthored. Just... 🥺, at his assumption that grad-school me would have the confidence to send out our poster to a bunch of people and that we'd want to coordinate our lists to make sure we didn't double-send.

An email from Bill saying "Hi Betsy, If you think the wording on the poster is right, I'd appreciate it if you would send it back to me. I'd like to send it around to a good number of people, including members of our department. I'll send you a copy of my list, so we don't overlap too much. Bill"

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

First bouquet from my garden this year! Turns out lilac bushes get huge so I put it in way too small of a space so I’ll have to move it or give it away soon but for now I’m just going to enjoy the blooms

Two lilac blooms with some leaves in a white vase

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Betsy Sneller @betsysneller.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Read this as “pope aspirants fight to the death” and drew an illustration only to JUST NOW discover that is not at all what you said lmao

A silly cartoon of two popes having an altercation. It’s not actually showing them fighting because I have no idea how to draw a physical fight, so this captures the moment just before the fight begins

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