Asia-Pacific Language Variation - Current Issue

The past year (2025) has marked the 10th anniversary of Asia-Pacific Language Variation (APLV), which started in 2015. This is a fitting time to examine how far we have come in the first ten years of APLV (2015–2024). In 2011, at the first NWAV Asia-Pacific conference, William Labov gave a plenary talk titled “Discovering the unexpected,” which was published in 2015 in the first issue of APLV. Labov discussed the ongoing expansion of variationist sociolinguistics into the Asia-Pacific region, stating that “the investigation should be prepared for unexpected findings that respond to the wider range of social relations” (2015, p. 21). We anticipated gaining many important new perspectives through variationist sociolinguistic approaches in lesser studied language communities (Satyanath, Meyerhoff, & Abtahian, 2024). What have we found? Are we discovering the unexpected? Are we surprised yet? This paper examines the 77 articles published in the first ten years of APLV.

The Bahnar language, a member of the Northern Bahnaric branch of the Mon-Khmer family, shows distinctive register contrasts that provide important insights into the process of registrogenesis. This paper studies register variation across three major dialects of Bahnar (spoken in Bình Định, Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces of Vietnam) based on production acoustic data collected from 48 native speakers. The authors analyze several phonetic parameters, including fundamental frequency (F0), vowel quality, voice quality, voice onset time (VOT) and vowel duration and focus on the correlation between initial consonants and the following vowels. The findings show clear dialectal differences: Bình Định displays a particularly lower register and complex devoicing patterns in initial consonants, while Gia Lai and Kon Tum rely more on spectral and temporal cues. These patterns suggest that Bahnar is experiencing transphonologization, with registers compensating for the weakening of initial consonant voicing. Beyond collecting regional variation data, the paper also explores sociophonetic variation. It contributes to the understanding of the phonetic mechanisms that drive registrogenesis in Austroasiatic languages and highlights the role of social factors in influencing Bahnar phonology.

This article offers the first curated synthesis of sociolinguistic research on variation and change in Philippine languages. It pursues two interrelated aims: to map and evaluate the existing body of work, and to trace how the field has developed over time conceptually, methodologically, and institutionally. Drawing on a systematic review of 77 studies published up to May 2025, the analysis identifies persistent tensions between structure and meaning, production and perception, and documentation and critique, representing not just gaps in coverage but also arguably symptoms of deeper epistemological orientations. Four macro-level patterns are identified: the dominance of structuralist paradigms; a prevailing focus on intergroup rather than intraspeaker variation; and the relative neglect of perception-based methods and multilingual theory, despite their empirical relevance. From these, the article argues for a reorientation of the field, positioning Philippine cases as theoretically productive sites for rethinking language, inequality, and social meaning in postcolonial multilingual contexts.

This study examines multimodal linguistic variation in the political discourse of Taiwanese legislator Pin-Yu Lai (PYL), focusing on her stylistic shifts during parliamentary interpellations. Employing both acoustic and gestural analysis, we explore her transition from a polite junior MP aligned with traditional party stances to a confrontational advocate for marginalized young voters. PYL’s ascent reflects the emerging wave of “new politics,” emphasizing youth engagement and transparent governance that prioritizes public interests. Our findings reveal a near-merger of alveolar-retroflex sibilant contrasts and a shift to assertive gestures, highlighting how PYL adeptly uses both linguistic and paralinguistic resources to navigate her self-positioning within the parliament, particularly regarding a controversy over the anime, comics and game (ACG) community. This research pioneers the integration of gestural analysis into studies of political linguistic variation and expands the geographic scope of field by incorporating an East Asian perspective.