My research deals with phonological systems, domains, and interfaces, particularly with phonetics. My dissertation in progress is on the phonetics and phonology of domain-final sonorant consonant devoicing, combining typological, experimental, and fieldwork methodologies to explore the nature of sonorant consonants and sonorant devoicing and the relationship between phonetics and phonology. Below are summaries of some of my ongoing and past research projects.
Domain generalization and the syllable in phonology
I am interested in domain edges and specifically coda/right-edge phenomena. My current research looks at the generalization of word/utterance-level patterns to the syllable level through artificial language learning experiments.
[Exploring Boundaries 2025 poster] [LASC 2024 slides] [FAMLi 2024 slides (Spanish)] [AMP 2023 proceedings] [AMP 2023 slides]
Laryngeal features, sonorant devoicing, and aspiration in Tz’utujil (Mayan) and beyond
This work looks at the featural nature of sonorant consonants, in light of the typologically rare phenomenon of coda sonorant devoicing in Tz’utujil. A wider typological exploration of sonorant devoicing and contrastive voiceless sonorants shows evidence that both [voice] and [spread glottis] may be active in such phenomena and that different languages employ different laryngeal features.
[FAMLi 2021 slides (Spanish)] [WSCLA 2021 slides] [AMP 2020 proceedings] [AMP 2020 poster]
Tone in Santiago Laxopa Zapotec
I have been collaborating with Mykel Brinkerhoff and Jack Duff to explore the tone system of Santiago Laxopa Zapotec (SLZ). We are interested in the interaction of tone with stress, vowel phonation, and prosody.
[SSILA 2022 slides] [MFM 2021 slides]
I have also been working on an analysis of loanword nativization in SLZ, which can help us to understand the phonology of the language.
Songs of the Aleutians and Alaska Peninsula
This project came out of CoLang 2016, the Institute on Collaborative Language Research. I was part of a group of students working with archival materials, with the help of native speaker and teacher, Moses Dirks, to study Unangam Tunuu (Aleut language). I ended up creating a website to make a sampling of songs from the Alaska Native Language Archive available and accessible to the community, language learners and teachers, linguists, musicologists, and anyone else who might appreciate them. This site also provides some language-learning materials and musicological insight.