Merryn Davies-Deacon

I am a sociolinguist with research and teaching interests in both French and the minoritised Celtic languages Breton and Cornish. I am especially interested in language variation in terms of what it can tell us about the diverse range of backgrounds and beliefs that speakers bring to their communities: my interests include lexical and orthographic variation, the use of languages in online contexts, the use and representation of non-standard language varieties, and how language varieties are legitimated.

My first monograph, Breton in contemporary media: Speakers, language, community, was published by De Gruyter in 2024 and considers how the use of diverse linguistic variants (in this case, lexis) in Breton allows speakers both to express beliefs about the form and function the language should have, and to communicate with others who may have different opinions and experiences.

I teach French language and (socio)linguistics to undergraduate students. At MA level, I convene and teach modules in sociolinguistics and research methods for data analysis in linguistics, and supervise dissertation work.

I grew up in Redruth, Cornwall in a bilingual Cornish/English household.