NWAV

The pronunciation comes from NWAVE, the initials of the name of earlier iterations of the conference, New Ways of Analyzing Variation in English.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛn.weɪv/

NWAV (countable and uncountable, plural NWAVs)

1. Initialism of New Ways of Analyzing Variation: an annual academic conference in sociolinguistics.
   • 2015, Susan Tamasi, Lamont Antieau, Language and Linguistic Diversity in the US: An Introduction, New York, NY: Routledge, →ISBN, page i:

     Susan Tamasi is Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Program in Linguistics, Emory University, Atlanta. She has presented at NWAV, AAAL, Sociolinguistics Symposium, and American Dialect Society.

   • 2016, Sali A. Tagliamonte, Making Waves: The Story of Variationist Sociolinguistics, Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, →DOI, →ISBN, page 68:

     The researchers who had sent in their papers were frustrated – three NWAVs without publications.

   • 2019, Stefan Dollinger, Creating Canadian English: The Professor, the Mountaineer, and a National Variety of English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 253:

     One of the problems of NWAV reviewing is that it is carried out by self-declared experts with basically no conference organizer oversight, veto, or corrective. Everyone who went to NWAV can self-identify their areas of expertise and significantly affect the inclusion or rejection of a given paper.

   • 2023, Frances Jessica Ruth Maddeaux, Individual Differences as Predictors of Participation in Sound Change‎, University of Toronto, page vi:

     I found so many enthusiastic supporters at various NWAVs, too many to name, and I will always be grateful to have “grown up” in this dynamic, challenging environment of researchers.