A group of 10 colleagues in a room. Most of us are wearing red Lancaster Phonetics Lab t-shirts. I am holding an ultrasound probe and Sam Kirkham is holding a nasalance device.

We had a brilliant time at Lancaster University's public engagement festival, Campus in the City, yesterday! We engaged with 260 people in Morecambe with ultrasound, nasalance, accent quizzes, gender and language, and a grammar escape room! @lancslinguistics.bsky.social @phoneticslab.bsky.social

I wrote a quick tutorial for a student on how to use to R to get Whisper to automatically transcribe your audio. I figured others might find it useful too. #linguistics joeystanley.com/blog/whisper/

A pair of swans are swimming along the canal. They have eight grey cygnets who are strung out in a line. The background shows a green field with trees at the edge. There are some sheep in the field.

UKLVC15 deadline extended!
Submit your abstracts by 28th March. Join us in Lancaster 2nd-4th September 2025 for sociolinguistic research on any language. Hosted by @lancslinguistics.bsky.social and University of Central Lancashire. More information and keynote presenters: wp.lancs.ac.uk/uklvc15/

Two Weeks In The Death Spiral Of Cardiff University - Reading Time: 4 minutesBy an anonymous academic. Cover image by Adwitiya Pal On the second day of classes…

Two Weeks In The Death Spiral Of Cardiff University, by an anonymous academic.
This is truly shocking read.
The Cardiff executive board should hang their heads in shame.
voice.cymru/two-weeks-in...

Nasal coarticulation in Lombard speech Speaking in noisy environments entails a multitude of adaptations to speech production. Such modifications are expected to reduce gestural overlap bet…

New open access paper in Speech Communication on “nasal coarticulation in Lombard speech”: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I argue that, in Lombard speech, coarticulatory vowel nasality falls amid a compressed range of nasalisation, but coarticulation is maintained

@phoneticslab.bsky.social

A selfie of me standing in front of the Jagiellonian University banner. The banner shows a modern university building where I gave my talk. The banner has a blue background showing the university logo. The weather is cold at the moment so I am wearing a black winter coat, purple scarf, and a grey hat.

It was my great privilege to give a talk yesterday at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, hosted by the Language Documentation Centre, Department of General and Indo-European Linguistics.
@lancslinguistics.bsky.social
@phoneticslab.bsky.social

Scaling laws for nonlinear dynamical models of articulatory control Dynamical theories of speech use computational models of articulatory control to generate quantitative predictions and advance understanding of speech dynamics.

Scaling laws for nonlinear dynamical models of articulatory control

➡️ My new article out today in JASA Express Letters, in which I present some new advances on nonlinear task dynamic models of articulatory speech movements.

🔗 doi.org/10.1121/10.0...

@asa-news.bsky.social

photo of Benjamin Disraeli with his quote "Therea re three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

The DESTRUCTION OF THE HUMANITIES at Cardiff University

Management seems to think that Humanities scholars don't know how to read statistics

Diving into their proposals shows how they are trying to hide the true extent of damage to Humanities disciplines here
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A view of the River Lune in Lancaster on a very still day in winter. The blue sky is reflected in the river water. There is an architecturally unusual footbridge over the river called the Millennium Bridge. It has two vertical posts with suspension wires attached. Some houses and buildings are visible in the background.

The call for papers for UKLVC15 is open! Deadline: 21st March. Join us in Lancaster 2nd-4th September 2025 for sociolinguistic research on any language. Hosted by @lancslinguistics.bsky.social and University of Central Lancashire. More information and keynote presenters: wp.lancs.ac.uk/uklvc15/

UPCOMING DEADLINE - CfP ➡️ Trondheim Young Researchers Symposium on Multilingualism (TYRSM) (May 26-27, 2025, in Trondheim, Norway)

See the full CfP: iam.wildapricot.org/TYRSM-2025

✅Deadline for abstract submission: January 31, 2025.

Feel free to share and spread the word.

a picture of Torun old town in winter

JOB ALERT! Come work with me!
34-Month Postdoc Position here at the Center for Language Evolution Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in my project "Paths to Polysemy"
Job offer here: www.umk.pl/en/jobs/?tas...
Please repost & share widely!

Congratulations on getting this funding! 🎉

What a lovely and moving account of how #Irish is not confined to rural & Gaeltacht areas, and how it matters in an urban space like Dublin. #langsky #minoritizedlanguages

Wow congratulations! 🎉

Oooh good suggestion!

A man is standing on a green grassy mountainside. He is wearing a beige t-shirt, sunglasses, and a rucksack. The sky is blue and the grass is very green.

We are delighted to welcome Dr Anton Malmi, who has started a 3-year postdoc in @phoneticslab.bsky.social @lancslinguistics.bsky.social funded by the Estonian Research Council! Anton will be investigating the acquisition of palatalisation in Estonian children using ultrasound tongue imaging.

A graph comparing signal to noise ratio results from data collected in fiver different locations: UCL recording room, UCL sound booth, Lancaster sound booth, Blackburn Market, and Burnley Market. The average values for the market locations are lower than the university settings.

Two people in blue t-shirts are at opposite ends of a table recording ultrasound with two members of the public.

We present an approach to collecting articulatory and acoustic data in public spaces combined with public engagement.
We also assess noisiness of acoustic data. Acoustic data collected at a market stall are noisier than lab data. But 96% of our market data were adequate for acoustic analysis.

Articulatory phonetics in the market: combining public engagement with ultrasound data collection This paper is a methodological contribution outlining an approach we have developed to recording ultrasound tongue imaging and audio research data as part of public engagement work. The paper is based...

New paper out with colleagues from @phoneticslab.bsky.social
'Articulatory phonetics in the market: combining public engagement with ultrasound data collection'
doi.org/10.1515/ling...
@samkirkham.bsky.social @takayukinagamine.bsky.social @pamelaforster.bsky.social
@justinjhlo.bsky.social

New speakers - people learning and reclaiming a language - are key to any language revitalization movement. 🌱

Understanding what motivates people to reclaim and learn their languages is an important part of revitalization work. A new book explores these issues in Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic):

Assistant Professor Please refer to the How to Apply for a Job (for External Candidates) job aid for instructions on how to apply. If you are an active McGill employee (ie: currently in an active contract or position at ...

Linguists! We're hiring an Assistant Professor (tenure track) in phonology (secondary specializations welcome) at McGill linguistics, deadline January 13. Come work with us!

mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...

Congratulations to @lancslinguistics.bsky.social @phoneticslab.bsky.social student Emily Gorman who passed her viva today!

A selfie of Simona and Claire together. We are in front the of large Lancaster University logo sign on a yellow brick wall.

A selfie of 11 people around a table at our Christmas dinner. Claire is taking the picture and is in the foreground. Background shows Simona and members of Lancaster Phonetics Lab.

We've been hosting Simona Montanari, California State University, @phoneticslab.bsky.social @lancslinguistics.bsky.social for the past couple of days. Great to hear about Simona's research on Spanish-English bilingual pre-schoolers and celebrate at our lab Christmas party!

Come and work with us in the Department of Linguistics and Communication at the University of Birmingham!

Great news Ben! Congratulations!! 🎉

Tongue Shape Complexity in Children With and Without Speech Sound Disorders Purpose: This study investigates the hypothesis that younger speakers and speakers with more severe speech sound disorders are more likely to use...

In theory, yes. But I would be cautious about using these measures for contrasts relying on the tongue tip. You would need to be very confident of capturing a good tongue tip ultrasound image, which can be tricky. I can recommend this paper for more info: doi.org/10.1044/2023...

Really helpful training course on carrying out oral history interviews with the Oral History Society at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social yesterday. Lovely to meet up with Jane and Takayuki afterwards too! 😀 @NWCDTP @phoneticslab.bsky.social @lancslinguistics.bsky.social

Congratulations to Stuart Dunmore on his brilliant new book! @edinburghup.bsky.social

A bright pink instructional graphic titled “How to sleigh alt text.” It includes colourful headings labelled Identify Who (in green), Expression (blue), Description (pink), Colour (red), and Interesting Features (grey). On the right side, there’s a sample alt text description in various colours that reads: “Santa Claus looking happy as he waves at the camera. He wears a traditional red suit and hat and has a long white beard and glasses. There are colourful lights twinkly behind him.” Below the text, a photo of Santa Claus is shown, waving with a big smile against a background of twinkling, colourful holiday lights

Alt text? Don’t worry, Santa’s elves have your back! Writing great alt text is simpler than you think.

Got questions? Ask our alt text elves!

I'm so sorry to hear this.

Congratulations to Pàdraig MacAoidh [Peter Mackay] on his appointment as Scotland's new Makar (National Poet).

Pàdraig is the first Scottish Gaelic poet in the role.

He recorded his poem Crann-cuinnse [Quince Tree] to promote the announcement. The English translation appears in the thread below.