Phonetics, Phonology, and Morphology

Phorum 2020

Spring 2020 March 2

Matthew Leonard (UCSF): Dynamic Brain Networks for the Perception and Organization of Speech

March 9

Mark Liberman (University of Pennsylvania): Symbols and Signals in Language Sound Structure

May 11

Raksit Lau (UC Berkeley): A Pathway to Tonogenesis: Shifting Language Dynamics in Kuy and the Perception-Production Link

Fall 2020 September 4

Round robin

Students and faculty are invited to...

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Phorum 2021

Spring 2021 February 5 Maksymilian Dabkowski (UC Berkeley): Stress in Paraguayan Guaraní

I describe and analyze stress assignment in Paraguayan Guaraní (Tupian, ISO 639-3: gug). In PG, final stress predominates at the level of prosodic words and phonological phrases alike. However, non-final stress is also attested in exceptional roots, morphologically complex words, and multi-word phonological phrases. I propose that there is one basic mechanism for stress assignment in PG: In the course of prosodification, stress targets the right edge of a prosodic constituent. This captures PG's...

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Phorum 2022

Spring 2022 January 21

Kie Zuraw and Paolo Roca (UCLA): Rhythms in OPM (Original Pinoy Music)

We use music and lyrics of OPM, Original Pilipino Music, to investigate a controversy about whether it is stress or vowel length that is active in Filipino, and whether words divide mainly into penult-stressed vs. ultima-stressed, or into penult-stressed vs. unstressed. We found in a small corpus of songs that "stressed" syllables, as compared to "...

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Phorum 2023

Spring 2023 January 20

Sarang Jeong (Stanford): The relation between perception and production in an ongoing sound change: A pilot experiment on the younger group's perception of Korean three-way stop contrast

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether individual language users’ perception is parallel to their production when their language community is going through a sound change. When a sound change is in progress, do speakers with the new and old variants...

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Phorum 2024

Spring 2024 January 19

No meeting.

Please check out the panel at 3:30pm (at Social Science Matrix, 8th floor Social Sciences Building) on Prof. Andrew Garrett's new book 'The...

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Phorum Archive

Past Phorum talks can be found here:

...

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Laryngeal features and segmental length: Cases studies in Yánesha’, Barese, Maranese, and Italian

Allegra Robertson

2025

This dissertation examines the relationship between laryngeal features and the segment in four languages, with a focus on phonetic traits, phonological representation, and the roles of length, weight, and stress. The case studies present laryngeal phenomena from disparate language contexts that are united in their subsegmental nature and typologically unexpected occurrence: laryngealized vowels in Yánesha’ (Arawakan), pre-aspirated geminate stops in Barese (Upper Southern Italo-Romance) and the local variety of Standard Italian (Central Italo-Romance), and post-aspirated geminate stops in...

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A Grammar of Nomlaki

Anna Björklund

2025

This thesis is a grammar of Nomlaki, a Wintuan language of northern California preserved exclusively through archival documents. Many early documenters did not consider Nomlaki sufficiently differentiated from its sister language Wintu to justify separate investigation. As a consequence, Nomlaki is the only Wintuan language without a grammatical description.

This grammar is a preliminary answer to this gap in the Californianist literature. This work is divided into eight chapters. The introduction includes an orientation of Nomlaki in its genetic context, a finding guide for its...

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Berkeley linguists at Exploring Boundaries workshop

March 5, 2025

Several Berkeley linguists will present at an upcoming workshop on Exploring Boundaries: Phonological domains in the languages of the world in Tromsø, Norway on March 13-14, 2025.

Maksymilian Dąbkowski and Katherine Russell will give a talk entitled "Wordhood at the heart of Paraguayan Guaraní morphology" Hannah Sande will give a talk entitled "Identifying domains in Lobi: Downstep, tone spreading, and harmony" Kai Joseph Schenck will present a poster on "Morphological domains in Yurok rhotic vowel harmony"