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Recent Stories

Linguistics events this week (Oct 2-9, 2026)

October 2, 2026

In and around the Department of Linguistics in the next week:

Berkeley ph-olks present at AMP

October 1, 2026

Several current and former Berkeley linguists are presenting at the Annual Meeting on Phonology, October 9-11 at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Talks:

  • A synchronic scalar vowel shift in Lobi (Gur/Mabia) plural formation (Prof. Hannah Sande and Berkeley undergraduate student Dylan Worden)

Posters:

  • Modeling segment strength in Q Theory: A case study of Ticuna (Myriam Lapierre (PhD 2021), Karee Garvin (PhD 2021))
  • Prosodically-conditioned contour/register alternations in Northern Toussian (Anthony Struthers-Young, Nicholas Rolle (PhD 2018))
  • Integrating nominals into a metrical analysis of Kuria tone (Berkeley PhD student Kai Schenck)
  • Domain-Specific Phonology of Shekgalagari Diminutives (Berkeley PhD student Rebecca Everson)
  • From Denasalization to Backcopying in Nyandarua Gĩkũyũ: Contrast Loss and the Emergence of Base-Reduplicant Identity (Chelsea (Yuen Chun) Tang (BA 2022))

Memorial volume in honor of Professor Gary Holland

September 30, 2026

A new volume honoring the life, memory, and academic legacy of the late Professor Gary B. Holland has just been published. The volume, titled Gary Holland mneías khárin, is edited by Roslyn Burns, Alfredo Rizza, and Marina Zorman, and it has been published by Reichert Verlag and Ljubljana University Press. Further details can be found here.

The volume includes contributions by several Berkeley faculty, including Eve Sweetser and Johanna Nichols, and two contributions by Gary's last student, Roslyn Burns.

Ladino en Kaza mentioned in LA Times

September 29, 2026

An article from September 29 in the Los Angeles Times titled "Let each culture decide which languages to save, and how" mentioned Ladino en Kaza, the home language nesting project developed by UC Berkeley students for Ladino/Judeo-Spanish, as an example of active language reclamation work. Ladino en Kaza was created by Julia Peck and made possible by the assistance of many Berkeley undergraduate alumni (Julian Vargo, Adrienne Fleming, Karleigh Dehlsen, Zag Hervas, Parth Patel, and Ece Tabag) through the LRAP program.

Rashid speaks in Japan

September 24, 2026

Nafisa Rashid presented a talk titled 'Exploring Accent Switching through Vowel Monophthongization in Ghanaian-American Speech: A Case Study' on September 16th at The 6th International Symposium on Applied Phonetics held at Eikei University of Hiroshima in Hiroshima, Japan. It was her first international conference and she had many fruitful discussions in English and Japanese with international scholars doing interdisciplinary work in the field of Linguistics. She also had others take interest in her talk and mention that the talk also called for awareness to the increasing need for bilingual language research on growing West African populations in Japan. Congrats, Nafisa! 

Linguistics events this week (Sept 25-Oct 2, 2026)

September 24, 2026

In and around the Department of Linguistics in the next week:

  • Sociolinguistics Lab at Berkeley - Friday Sep 25 - Dwinelle 5125 and Zoom - 2-3pm.
    Data Presentation by Verónica Grajeda
  • Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Sept 25 - Dwinelle 1303 and Zoom - 3:10-4:30pm
    Rebecca Jarvis (Potsdam): An initial look at Atchan impersonal pronouns and reduced purpose clauses
  • Phorum - Monday Sept 28 - Dwinelle 1229 and Zoom - 12(:10) pm - 1:00 pm 
    AMP 2026 Practice Presentations
  • Ladino/Judeo-Spanish Working Group - Tuesday Sep 29 - Dwinelle 1229 and Zoom - 11:00am-12pm
    Workshop on Ladino songs/Atolye de kantikas en ladino
  • Language Revitalization Working Group - Wednesday Sept 30 - Dwinelle 1303 and Zoom - 3:10-4pm
    Welcome gathering / Round robin. All students, faculty, staff, and community members doing Language Revitalization, Language Activism or interested in this work are welcome. No academic affiliation needed!
  • Sociolinguistics Lab at Berkeley - Friday Oct 2 - Dwinelle 5125 and Zoom - 2-3pm.
    Workshop: Graphing in R for Linguistics Research. (Please come ready with R and R Studio installed!)
  • Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Oct 2 - Dwinelle 1303 and Zoom - 3:10-4:30pm
    Zachary O'Hagan (Berkeley): TBA

Linguistics events this week (Sept 18-25, 2026)

September 17, 2026

In and around the Department of Linguistics in the next week:

Script Encoding Initiative holds open house

September 17, 2026

The Script Encoding Initiative (SEI) will be hosting an open house next week on Tuesday, Sept 22, from 5-6pm in Dwinelle 3401. (Please enter via the entrance in the link if you do not have office wing access after 5pm.) Come learn about SEI's interdisciplinary research on writing and technology and about opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to engage in over the coming year. There will also be copies of The World’s Writing Systems posters and other goodies on hand.

RSVP preferred, here!

A poster showing a chart of the world's writing systems

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