Phonology

The Phonology Group at UCalgary studies the patterns and nature of speech sounds across different languages, including segmental and prosodic phenomena in adults and children. Our approaches range from theoretical phonology to laboratory phonology, with a special interest in Indigenous languages of Canada.

Faculty

Dr. Darin Flynn’s interests include phonology and its relation to phonetics, morphology, and syntax; Indigenous languages; rap linguistics; taboo language; and personal names.

Dr. Angeliki Athanasopoulou focuses on prosodic development and prosodic typology, aiming to understand different aspects of prosodic systems across languages, both how they are structured and processed, and how they develop in children.

Students:  BrettC Nelson (PhD), Summer Abdalla (MA)

The Prosody Reading Group

Led by Dr. Athanasopoulou, the Prosody Reading Group meets weekly to discuss readings pertaining to the typology, acquisition, and analysis of prosodic phenomena. 

The Phonetics/Phonology Reading Group

The phonetics/phonology reading group meets weekly to discuss recently published work and ongoing research in phonetics and phonology. Previous topics of discussion have included prosody, phonation, acoustic phonetics, and automatic speech recognition, among others. If you are interested in joining, contact Dr. Stephen Winters at swinters AT ucalgary DOT ca

Publications

Articles

2020

Bacanlı, E., Flynn, D., & Pounder, A. (2020). Vowel harmony and other morphological processes in Turkish. In B. Palaz & L. Stromdahl (Eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Turkic and Languages in Contact with Turkic (Vol. 5, pp. 16–30). Linguistic Society of America.

Cook, E.-D., & Flynn, D. (2020). Indigenous languages in Canada. In J. Archibald & W. O’Grady (Eds.), Contemporary linguistic analysis (9th ed., pp. 298–314). Pearson.

2019

Bennett, W.G. (2019). ‘Backwards’ sibilant palatalization in a variety of Setswana. In Proceedings from ACAL 47. University of California, Berkley, (23-26 March, 2016).

2018

Athanasopoulou, A., & Flynn, D. (2018). Vowel length distinctions in Plains Cree. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 144(3), 1941-1941. 

Bennett, W. G., & DelBusso, N. (2018). The typological effects of ABC constraint definitions. Phonology, 35(1), 1-37.

Bennett, W. G., & Pulleyblank, D. (2018). Directionality in Nkore-Kiga sibilant harmony: arbitrary or emergent? Linguistic Inquiry, 49(1), 1-22.

2017

Bennett, W. G., & Rose, S. (2017). Moro voicelessness dissimilation and binary [voice]. Phonology, 34(3), 473-505. 

Bennett, W. G., & DelBusso, N. (2017). Typological consequences of ABCD constraint forms. In NELS 47: Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (Vol. 1, pp. 75-88).

Köhlo, M. D., Siebörger, I., & Bennett, W. G. (2017). A perfect end: A study of syllable codas in South African Sign Language. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 52(1), 127-156. 

2016

Braver, A., & Bennett, W. G. (2016). Phonotactic c(l)ues to Bantu noun class disambiguation. Linguistics Vanguard, 2(1).

Bennett, W. G., Diemer, M., Kerford, J., Probert, T., & Wesi, T. (2016). Setswana (South African). Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 46(2), 235-246. 

Braver, A., & Bennett, W. G. (2016, June). Phonotactics of noun class disambiguation in Xhosa. In Proceedings of the Annual Meetings on Phonology (Vol. 3). 

Bennett, W. G., Del Busso, N., & Iacoponi, L. (2016, June). Formally mapping the typologies of interacting ABCD systems. In Proceedings of the Annual Meetings on Phonology (Vol. 3). 

Windsor, J. W. (2016). Prosodic evidence for the syntactic constituency of demonstratives in Irish. In Proceedings of the 2016 annual conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association.

2015

Bennett, W. G., & Braver, A. (2016). The productivity of ‘unnatural’labial palatalization in Xhosa. Nordlyd, 42(1), 33-44. 

Bennett, W. G. (2015). Assimilation, dissimilation, and surface correspondence in Sundanese. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 33(2), 371-415.

2014

Bennett, W. G. (2014). Agreement, dependencies, and Surface Correspondence in Obolo and beyond. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 44, 149-171. 

Bennett, W. G. (2014). Some differences between clicks and labio-velars. South African Journal of African Languages, 34(2), 115-126. 

Flynn, D., & Fulop, S. (2014). Acoustic phonetic features in Athabaskan sound change. Diachronica, 31(2), 192-222.

Conferences

2021

Nelson, B. C., & Flynn, D. (2021, June 7). “Chrump’s on Chwitter”? A first look at expanding affrication of English /t/ [poster]. Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association, Edmonton, AB. 

Flynn, D. (2021, June 5). Hidden compounds in English [poster]. Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association, Edmonton, AB. 

Flynn, D., & Tufts, K. (2021, March 4–7). Language documentation in Roam Research: Recognizing relationships in field notes. 7th International Conference on Language Documentation & Conservation (ICLDC), University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, HI.

2020

Flynn, D. (2020, October 14). A sacred trust: Indigenous languages in Canada [talk]. Last Lecture, Leadership and Student Engagement, University of Calgary.

Bacanlı, E., & Flynn, D. (2020, February 8–9). Radical allomorphy in Southwestern Turkish dialects [talk]. 5th Workshop on Turkic and Languages in Contact with Turkic, Newark, DE.

Bacanlı, E., Flynn, D., & Pounder, A. (2020, February 8–9). Vowel harmony and other morphological processes in Turkish [poster]. 5th Workshop on Turkic and Languages in Contact with Turkic, Newark, DE. 

Athanasopoulou, A., Goddard, Q., & Flynn, D. (2020, January 2–5). Plains Cree and the ambiguity between lexical and phrasal prosody [poster]. 94th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, New Orleans, LA.

2019

Goddard, Q., Athanasopoulou, A., & Flynn, D. (2019, October 9–10). Lexical stress in Plains Cree: an acoustic account [talk]. Acoustics Week in Canada 2019, Canadian Acoustical Association, Edmonton, AB.

Flynn, D., Hodgson, M., & Windsor, J. W. (2019, June 1–3). Aspiration in Blackfoot and Plains Cree [poster]. Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association, Vancouver, BC. 

Bacanlı, E., Flynn, D., & Pounder, A. (2019, June 1–3). View from Turkish: morphology as executive, phonology as executor [poster]. Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association, Vancouver, BC.

2018

Windsor, J., Flynn, D., & Coward, S. (2018). Munster Irish Word-internal Prosody: Clues from Word-external Prosody. Presented at Alberta Conference on Linguistics, University of Calgary, Canada (27 October, 2018).
 
Flynn, D., Windsor, J.,  & Storoshenko, D. (2018). On the Phonology of Personal Dative Constructions. Presented at Alberta Conference on Linguistics. University of Calgary, Canada (27 October, 2018).

2017

Flynn, D., Windsor, J., & Coward, S. (2017). The Phonetics of Prominence of the Word and Phrase in Three Irish Dialects. Presented at Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association, York University, Toronto, ON (May 27–29, 2017).
 
Flynn, D. (2017). Weak Syllable Refitting in Late-Stage Phonological Development. Presented at the 3rd Annual Meeting of the NorthWest Phonetics & Phonology Conference (NoWPhon), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (May 19–21, 2017).