PhD Candidate Brynhildur Stefansdottir traveled to her native Iceland in August to perform field research for her dissertation on  the reduction of voiced fricatives in Icelandic speech.

During her visit she recorded 32 Icelandic speakers for an acoustic production study on the realization of intervocalic fricatives. 

During her three week stay she was lucky enough to get several days of sun.   stay. Special thanks to her old secondary school Laugalækjarskóli, for allowing her to record there, and to the teachers and employees for being such willing participants! 

Ph.D. candidate Nielson Hul had an extremely busy summer 2022. 

He presented his research on Khmer plosives at SEALS 2022 (Southeast Asian Linguistics Society), held at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa on May 18-20, 2022

Nielson also taught Khmer at SEASSI (Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute), held at UW Madison from June 19 to August 11. 

And in between these activities, Nielson somehow found time to teach Khmer to a US government organization. 

Prof. Sam Tilsen (Linguistics) and Prof. James Sethna (Physics) were awarded a Cornell New Frontier Grant to investigate the emergence of dialects in networks of speakers with random, constrained interactions.

The project investigates the following questions:

• How "spontaneous" is the emergence of dialects?
• What are the conditions under which the speech patterns of individuals organize into different speech styles?

There are many reasons why dialectal variation arises within languages: various geographic, historical, and socioeconomic factors can create asymmetries that allow for different ways of speaking to emerge. 

Due to the complexity of these factors, along with logistical challenges in observing speech behavior on sufficiently large spatial and temporal scales, it is challenging to pinpoint the causes of dialect-scale linguistic variation. And yet, the prevalence of such variation raises an important question: is dialectal variation inevitable? 

This question is not only of theoretical interest, but also has practical applications for speech-based analysis of group dynamics.

Tilsen and Sethna adopt a hybrid computational and experimental strategy to study dialect emergence.

• Their computational approach is based on an analogy between the evolution of speech behavior in networks of speakers and the emergence of large-scale order in physical systems that are undergoing relaxation processes.

• Their experimental approach involves longitudinal studies in which pairs of speakers are recorded while playing an online map-navigation game.

On July 22nd, Ph.D. student Dan Burgdorf successfully defended their dissertation thesis entitled:   "A Functional Cognitive Difference Behind the C/V Distinction: Evidence from Glides".   

Dan is shown here, from the left:  grad student Rachel Vogel, Dan Burgdorf,  committee member Dr. Abigail Cohn, and graduate student Joseph Rhyne.  Committee member Dr. Draga Zec and Committee Chair Dr. Sam Tilsen attended remotely via Zoom.