Jill Puttaert is a researcher at the Centre for Linguistics.

More information about Jill Puttaert

Fields of interest

• (Historical) sociolinguistics
• History of Dutch
• Language variation and change
• Language choice
• Language history from below

Research

I received my PhD in 2019 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) with a thesis entitled ‘Forgotten Voices from Below. A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Lower-Class Correspondence in the Low Countries in the Long Nineteenth Century’. In my thesis I investigated the written language use in letters by soldiers from the Napoleonic era and by paupers asking for financial support from their local authorities. More specially, I looked at the tension between influences from local varieties and dialects on the one hand and supralocal writing practices on the other. Currently I am working as a postdoc on the new NWO-funded project ‘Pardon my French? Dutch-French Language Contact in The Netherlands, 1500-1900’ at Leiden University.

Grants and awards

Jeanne Lonnoy Prize 2012-2013 for the best MA thesis in Linguistics. Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Curriculum vitae

2020-present
Postdoctoral researcher on the NWO-funded project 'Pardon my French? Dutch-French Language Contact in The Netherlands, 1500-1900', Leiden University Centre for Linguistics

2013-2019
PhD fellow on the FWO- and VUB-funded project ‘Forgotten Voices from Below. A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Lower-Class Correspondence in the Low Countries in the Long Nineteenth Century’ – Vrije Universiteit Brussel

2011-2013
MA Dutch Language and Literature (‘Taal en Letterkunde, Nederlands’) – Vrije Universiteit Brussel

2007-2011
Teacher training for Dutch and history (BA) (‘Lerarenopleiding secundair onderwijs: Nederlands en geschiedenis’) – Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (HUB)

Publications