Phonetics and phonology

Phonetics and Phonology Research Group

The phonetics and phonology research group (or 'P-group') brings together researchers who are working to understand the phonetics and/or phonology of human language. We combine a broad range of expertise and interests, ranging from acoustic and articulatory phonetics to formal phonological theory, taking in sociophonetics, phonological dialectology, speech recognition and speech synthesis, speech perception, laboratory phonology, historical phonology, and developmental phonology.

We explore these issues from formal, experimental, and engineering perspectives, with interests in synchrony, diachrony, and acquisition. Members of the group work as individuals, in collaboration with each other, and in a number of collaborations with other researchers in Edinburgh and at other universities.

Most members of the group are primarily affiliated with Linguistics and English Language, but others come from elsewhere at the University of Edinburgh (e.g., the Centre for Speech Technology Research and Informatics), or from Speech and Hearing Sciences at Queen Margaret University.

Meetings

The P-group normally meet (our meetings are called the 'Phonetics and Phonology Workshop', or 'P-workshop') on Fridays (but not every Friday) at 12:10pm. For more information (and/or if you'd like to be added to the P-workshop mailing list), email the organisers: Patrick Honeybone, Jeremy Steffman and Oksana Lebedivna.

People

Staff working in this area include:

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Research interests

Peter Bell

(Informatics)

Automatic speech recognition

Julian Bradfield

(Informatics)

Formal phonology; phonology-phonetics interface; click languages; simulations in phonology
Stefano CorettaPhonetics; phonology; statistics
Benjamin ElieAcoustics and articulatory models of human speech production

Heinz J Giegerich

(Emeritus)

Phonological and morphological theory, especially in relation to English
Lauren Hall-LewSociolinguistics; sociophonetics; phonetic methods; English variation and change; language and ethnicity; language and tourism
Patrick HoneyboneHistorical phonology; phonological theory; phonological dialectology; northern Englishes
Christian IlburySociolinguistics; language variation and change
Pavel IosadTheoretical phonology; phonological interfaces; historical phonology; Celtic languages; Germanic languages
Itamar KastnerMorphology; morphophonology; syntax; semantics
Simon KingSpeech recognition; speech synthesis

Bob Ladd

(Emeritus)

Intonation and prosody (incl. phonology, phonetics, and paralinguistics); phonology-phonetics "interface" issues; language and music
Catherine LaiSpeech prosody; spoken language understanding; affective computing; semantics; pragmatics; information structure
Warren MaguireDialectology; varieties of English/Scots; phonetic and phonological variation and change
Benjamin MolineauxProsodic structure and change; phonology and morphology of Mapudungun (isolate, Chile/Argentina); sound-to-spelling mapping, especially in Older Scots
Mits OtaFirst and second language acquisition; phonology
Michael RamsammyExperimental and theoretical phonology; phonological change; Creole Englishes; articulatory phonetics
Bert RemijsenSuprasegmental systems: how languages make use of pitch, duration, voice quality, loudness, and to some extent vowel quality
Korin RichmondSpeech synthesis; articulatory data for speech technology; lexicography and pronunciation modelling

Jim Scobbie

(Queen Margaret University)

Socio-laboratory phonology; child speech; covert and quasi-phonemic phonological contrast; clinical phonetics; Scottish English; articulatory phonetics; ultrasound analysis of the tongue

Mark Steedman

(Informatics)

Computational linguistics; spoken intonation; spoken language processing
Jeremy SteffmanRepresentations and processes in speech perception; prosody; intonation; (primarily acoustic) phonetics
Alice TurkSpeech production; speech perception; prosodic structure; timing

Postgraduates

Research postgraduates working in this area include:

Johanna BasnakDevelopmental phonology; phonological typology; phonemic inventories; lexical acquisition; learning biases
Aldo Berrios CastilloMapudungun phonology and morphology; historical phonology
Fae HicksTheoretical historical linguistics; historical phonology; historical syntax; phonology
Brandon KiefferHistorical phonology of Great Lakes Bantu
Anna Laoide-KempLinguistic theory; Celtic linguistics; phonology; morphosyntax; modularity; interactions between grammatical modules
Siqing LiEnglish phonology; plural fricative lenisisation
Gilly MarchiniRomance Linguistics; acoustic phonetics; laboratory phonology; dialectology
Alice MarikanSociolinguistic dialectology; variation; phonetics; Austronesian linguistics
Jakub MusilPhonological theory; the phonetics-phonology interface; Celtic linguistics
William PeraltaTonogenesis; perception and production in the context of prosody
Georges SakrAcoustic and articulatory phonetics; phonetics-phonology interface; laboratory and experimental phonology

You can also see what some of our recent postgraduate students worked on:

Postgraduate Study

We welcome applications from potential postgraduates who would like to join our group:

History

Find out more about the roots of phonetics and phonology research at Edinburgh: