What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to evaluate the progress and findings of the Asia-Pacific Language Variation (APLV) over its first decade.

February 19, 2026Asia-Pacific Language Variation0 citations

Are we surprised yet?

Key Points

The aim is to evaluate the progress and findings of the Asia-Pacific Language Variation (APLV) over its first decade.
Review of 77 articles published in APLV from 2015 to 2024.
Analysis of linguistic variation across different language communities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Examination of unexpected findings from sociolinguistic studies.
Identified key advancements in variationist sociolinguistics over ten years.
Revealed new insights into lesser studied linguistic communities.
Highlighted unexpected findings that expand the understanding of social relations in language variation.

Abstract

Abstract 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 .

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