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February 21, 2022

Dąbkowski published in Phonology

Congratulations to Maksymilian Dąbkowski(link is external), whose article "Dominance is non-representational: Evidence from A'ingae verbal stress"(link is external) has just been published in Phonology!

February 18, 2022

Linguistics events this week (Feb 18-25, 2022)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

February 11, 2022

Linguistics events this week (Feb 11-18, 2022)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

February 4, 2022

Linguistics events this week (Feb 4-11, 2022)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

January 31, 2022

Belew colloquium

The 2021-2022 colloquium series continues on Monday, February 7, with a talk by Anna Belew(link is external) (Endangered Languages Project & University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa), held via Zoom(link is external) (passcode: 956577) at 3:10pm. The talk is entitled "Ten Years Beyond the Ancestral Code: Growing Into a Model for Sociolinguistic Documentation," and the abstract is as follows:

Reflecting on the ten years since the 2012 Workshop on Sociolinguistic Documentation in Sub-Saharan Africa, this talk will explore work and ideas at the intersection of language documentation, revitalization, and sociolinguistics. Documentary linguistics has traditionally focused on describing and recording the structure of a single lexico-grammatical code (or bounded "language"). However, as argued by Childs, Good, and Mitchell (2014), in their report on the aforementioned 2012 workshop, the documentation of sociolinguistic contexts is equally crucial - especially since these contexts are generally more fragile, and more endangered, than languages themselves. This talk will share findings from the author's sociolinguistic documentation work in Iyasa-speaking communities in Cameroon; explore the challenges of forging viable, useful, and ethical paths in this relatively new field of study; reflect on how sociolinguistic documentation can lead to better language revitalization planning; and share lessons learned and suggestions for others interested in this type of work. Finally, this talk will touch on how the skills and knowledge of documentary and/or sociolinguists can be applied to career paths outside of academia.

January 28, 2022

Linguistics events this week (Jan 28-Feb 4, 2022)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

January 27, 2022

Beguš becomes College Principal of Bowles Hall

Congratulations to the new principal of Bowles Hall(link is external), Gašper Beguš!

January 26, 2022

dos Santos presents at SSILA

Wesley dos Santos(link is external) presented at the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas(link is external) (SSILA) last Sunday, January 23. The slides for his talk, "For a Realis and Irrealis Account of Ko and Po in Kawahíva," are available here(link is external).

January 25, 2022

Beier and Michael publish new chapter on lexicography data

A chapter by Christine Beier and Lev Michael entitled "Managing Lexicography Data"(link is external) appears in the new Open Handbook of Linguistic Data Management(link is external) (MIT Press). All 56 chapters of the handbook, which span a tremendous range of topics, are available free online. Check it out!

January 21, 2022

Linguistics events this week (Jan 21-28, 2022)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

January 17, 2022

Baese-Berk colloquium

The 2021-2022 colloquium series continues on Monday, January 24, with a talk by Melissa Baese-Berk(link is external) (University of Oregon), held via Zoom(link is external) (passcode: 660588) from 3:10-5pm. The talk is entitled "Factors influencing non-native perception and learning," and the abstract is as follows:

Learning a second language is a complex task, requiring acquisition of syntactic structure, lexical items, and phonological structure, among other things. Speech perception and learning phonological categories are notoriously difficult for non-native speakers because sensitivity to non-native contrasts by adult listeners is typically quite poor. Previous research has hypothesized that a relationship between the structure of the first and second languages predicts perception and acquisition of contrasts in the second language. My research examines a number of other factors that may influence perception and learning of non-native contrasts. The work I will present addresses several factors including: the relationship between perception and production during learning and how this relationship might shift both over time and across contrasts, the role of variability during training, and the role of active vs. passive exposures during training. I will discuss the implications of the results of these studies for our understanding of speech perception and production more broadly.

Summer funding through the Center for African Studies

Thank you to Hannah Sande for sharing this information from the Center for African Studies(link is external):

We are offering Summer 2022 funding through the Department of Education for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships. In addition to the Arabic language offered at Berkeley, there are other African Languages offered at various other FLAS-funded programs in the US. We can possibly fund African languages that are not being taught at Berkeley or other programs this summer through the Intensive Summer Multilanguage Seminar(link is external), University of Wisconsin-Madison. Contact us(link sends e-mail) for more information.

The application deadline is Monday, 14 February, 2022.

January 16, 2022

CLA updates

Here's the latest from the California Language Archive(link is external):

January 14, 2022

Linguistics events this week (Jan 14-21, 2022)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

January 12, 2022

Kaplan and Cutler win Five Minute Linguist

Congratulations to Jennifer Kaplan(link is external) and Cecelia Cutler(link is external) (CUNY Graduate Center), whose presentation "I’m Tawkin’ Here: Why don’t New Yorkers sound like Noo Yawkas anymore?" won first prize in the Five Minute Linguist(link is external) competition at this year's meeting of the Linguistic Society of America! Read all about it here(link is external).

Wilbanks joins Research IT

Eric Wilbanks(link is external) is joining UC Berkeley Research IT(link is external) this spring as a domain consultant, where he will provide consultation and training on research data and computing to the campus research community. Congrats, Eric!

January 11, 2022

Hyman published in Africana Linguistica

Congratulations to Larry Hyman(link is external) on the publication of a new article in Africana Linguistica:

January 10, 2022

FLAS Academic Year and Summer Fellowships

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships fund graduate students to study critical and less commonly taught foreign languages, in combination with area and international studies. FLAS awards are offered by the Center for African Studies; the Institute of East Asian Studies; the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies; the Center for Latin American Studies; the Center for Middle Eastern Studies; the Institute for South Asia Studies; the Center for Southeast Asia Studies; and the Institute of European Studies. Summer and academic year applications are due Monday, 1/31, and more information is available here(link is external).

January 9, 2022

Lapierre files dissertation

Congratulations to Myriam Lapierre(link is external), who filed her doctoral dissertation last month:

"Towards a Theory of Subsegmental and Subfeatural Representations: The Phonology and Typology of Nasality"
Committee: Sharon Inkelas, Lev Michael (co-chairs), Larry Hyman, Darya Kavitskaya, Susan Lin

Garvin files dissertation

Congratulations to Karee Garvin(link is external), who filed her doctoral dissertation last month:

"Word-medial syllabification and gestural coordination"
Committee: Keith Johnson, Sharon Inkelas (co-chairs), Darya Kavitskaya