Research​
My research highlights the linguistic diversity of the Francophone world with a focus on minoritized languages and the political, historical, and ideological forces that shape their use. I explore how speakers of these languages navigate shifting ideas of legitimacy, identity, and power, especially in contexts where national policies promote linguistic homogeneity. My work combines sociolinguistic methods with interdisciplinary insights to better understand the role of language in both sustaining and challenging dominant narratives about nationhood, community, and cultural belonging.​
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What I Do
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My research is situated in the field of sociolinguistics, but is informed by interdisciplinary perspectives from history, anthropology, and political science. My work is based on the reality that French is never the sole language in Francophone countries, even within France. My dissertation, “Agency in language revitalization: Actions and ideologies contributing to standardization processes in Picard,” examines the situation of a stigmatized minority language in France and Belgium. Specifically, it explores how Picard speakers balance pressures to standardize their language for revitalization purposes with efforts to preserve dialectal diversity and local identity. These pressures are shaped by restrictive nation-state ideologies, especially in centralized France, where linguistic and cultural homogeneity are often prerequisites for recognition. I have investigated related issues in Breton and other minoritized European languages, as well as the languages of Morocco, Haiti, and Réunion. My ongoing and future projects continue to explore the sociopolitical dimensions of linguistic diversity in the Francophonie.
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What I Do (For Specialists)
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I am a sociolinguist with a focus on language policy and planning (LPP) and language ideologies in minoritized languages. My dissertation research investigates LPP actors' individual agency in rejecting or encouraging language standardization processes in Picard, a minoritized Gallo-Romance language. While I have used a variety of research methods in my work, my recent projects draw mainly on qualitative methods, specifically reflective thematic analysis using NVivo to analyze survey and interview data. The goal of my research is to better understand how speakers of non-French languages in Francophone societies interact with issues of identity and language ideology.
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Publications​
Cox, J. (in press). Justifying revitalization: Addressing contestedness as an obstacle to revitalization in Picard. Cognitive Studies/Études cognitives, 2025(25).
Cox, J. (in press). Minority language instructors as agents of standardization: Confronting variation during the introduction of Picard in schools. In G. Forlot & S. Kamdem (Eds.), Lesser-taught languages in multilingual contexts: Topics on language variation, pedagogy and policy. Routledge.
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Cox, J. and Miller-Broomfield, C. (to appear March 2026). The uncanny valley of France’s minority languages: Investigating attitudes and perceived distance from French. IULC Working Papers.
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Cox, J. (2025). Revisiting authenticity in the Breton lexicon: An empirical approach. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2025(295), 101-128. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2024-0075
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Johnson, D. and Cox, J. (2020). The linguistic deception of the phrase best practices: A critical analysis of articles discussing “best” practices in online learning. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 23(1).
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Project Summaries
Agents of language revitalization in Picard
This project investigates the agency of individual actors, organizations, and communities in the standardization of Picard, a minoritized language in northern France and Belgium. Using qualitative data from interviews, participant observation, and publicly available texts, the results demonstrate the ways in which social actors at all levels have the power to influence language revitalization efforts. These findings contribute to current trends in the field of language policy and planning, which challenge the traditional idea that states and education systems are the principal actors in language revitalization.
Attitudes toward neologisms in Breton
This project investigates the use of neologisms and French borrowings in Breton. L1 speakers of Breton traditionally use borrowings from French to fill lexical gaps, while L2 speakers have been shown to prefer Celtic-based neologisms. However, in actual practice, do L2 speakers prioritize the use of “correct” neologisms taught in language courses, or do they use French borrowings to target the “authentic” speech of L1 Breton speakers? In addition, how do they define authentic Breton, and is authenticity important to them? This study investigates these questions using a questionnaire that collects quantitative and qualitative data from L2 speakers of Breton. Results show that these speakers have a complex idea of authentic Breton: while they agree that L1 speakers have the most authentic speech, they also believe that neologisms are the most authentic, even though L1 varieties typically prefer borrowings.
The "uncanny valley" of France's regional languages
Using empirical data, this study investigates the idea that the regional languages of France that are considered similar to French are typically seen as less prestigious than those which are clearly distinct from it. To evaluate this, the results of a survey measuring perceived linguistic distance are compared with those of a survey collecting language attitudes. Results show a significant correlation between perceived proximity to French and negative attitudes, suggesting an “uncanny valley” effect that has implications for minority language revitalization efforts, especially for contested languages both in France and around the world. These findings provide evidence that minoritized languages' perceived proximity to a dominant majority language may negatively affect public attitudes toward those languages, even when attitudes judgements are based on the sound of the language alone.
