See you at LabPhon next week and CorpusPhon2 the week after. Our website is updated with schedule and abstracts.
See you at LabPhon next week and CorpusPhon2 the week after. Our website is updated with schedule and abstracts.
Why, in the year of our Paul Passy 2026, are there still people who've put in hundreds of coding hours and still manage to believe there's a single IPA representation for any given orthographic text?
I know they just WANT there to be a one-to-one mapping, but wishing it don't make it so.
I'm pretty sure someone's come up with a corrolary of the #BenderRule for accents!
#Postdoctoral Researcher in Evolutionary Phonological Typology 80 %
The Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE) at the University of #Zurich invites applications for a 4-year Postdoctoral Researcher position. The position is associated with the research project “Uncovering the dynamics of sound patterns: phylogenetic approaches to phonological typology” funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
This project seeks to fill in the gaps in our understanding of the forces, both language-internal and language-external, that shape the evolution of sound patterns across languages, further integrating the subfield of phonological typology with evolutionary #linguistics, a burgeoning research area that draws upon methods from computational biology and other disciplines in order to investigate a wide variety of questions regarding linguistic change.
Deadline : Open Until Filled
More info here:
https://jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancies/postdoctoral-researcher-in-evolutionary-phonological-typology/3438bfd0-599f-4e8b-b9ba-690113b457d9
#postdoc #JobOffer #JobsInAcademia #AcademiaJobs #phonology #phonetics
The Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE) at the University of Zurich invites applications for a 4-year Postdoctoral Researcher position. The position is associated with the research project Uncovering the dynamics of sound patterns: phylogenetic approaches to phonological typology funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. This project seeks to fill in the gaps in our understanding of the forces, both language-internal and language-external, that shape the evolution of sound patterns across languages, further integrating the subfield of phonological typology with evolutionary linguistics, a burgeoning research area that draws upon methods from computational biology and other disciplines in order to investigate a wide variety of questions regarding linguistic change. The ISLE at the University of Zurich plays an important role in the activities of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language, and fosters a vibrant environment that facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration.
#epitran : A tool for transcribing orthographic text as #IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).
Let's start : https://github.com/dmort27/epitran/pull/252

bug fix : Added missing geminates: tt, qq, jj, cc, čč, ǧǧ, hh, ww, yy, ḥḥ, ṣṣ, ṭṭ, ḍḍ, ẓẓ, ṛṛ Mapped o to u since Kabyle has no native /o/ phoneme; words borrowed with /o/ are nativized as /u/ Rem...
A short post on ear training – from music to IPA 👂 Have you tried?
https://philosophics.blog/2026/06/01/ear-training/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
#language #music #training #blog #perception #phonetics #listening
A fascinating video of a singer's vocal folds (commonly (and improperly) called "vocal cords") in action.
Interestingly, they look a little like a mouth, except they look "closed" when producing voiced sounds (like vowels, or consonants like "l", "b", "j", and many others), and "open" when the singer is silent or producing unvoiced sounds (like "h" "p", "sh", and many others).
That's because vocal folds work a little like a trumpet player's lips (or your lips, when you blow a raspberry): pressure builds up upstream, and the pressure differential between upstream and downstream causes the folds to oscillate rapidly (a couple of hundreds times per second), producing a base "buzz" sound.
That buzz then gets filtered by the rest of the vocal tract — which includes, importantly, your mouth — in a way that depends on the geometry its owner gives it. That's e.g. how you get different vowels!
Try to get a feeling of what happens in your throat as you're switching from silence to saying e.g. "aah" and back to silence, and maybe you'll understand that video and my explanation better!
𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗘𝘁𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘆, 𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀
English "cow" comes from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeh₃-u-s [gwous], perhaps something like this (listen):
🔊 https://www.ancientsounds.net/eastern-origins/cow-from-PIE-gwous.wav
which also developed into Dari گاو [gau] and Persian گاو [gov]:
🔊 https://www.ancientsounds.net/eastern-origins/PIE-gwous-to-Persian-gov.wav
and very many other Indo-European languages, such as Ancient Greek βοῦς [bous]:
🔊 https://www.ancientsounds.net/eastern-origins/PIE-gwous-to-Ancient-Greek-bous.wav
@linguistics #linguistics #etymology #EnglishLanguage #AcousticPhonetics #phonetics #ProtoIndoEuropean #Iranian #Persian #Dari #AncientGreek
𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗘𝘁𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘆, 𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀
English "choose" comes from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéus-, perhaps something like this (listen):
🔊 https://www.ancientsounds.net/eastern-origins/choose-from-PIE-geus.wav
You can't choose your relatives, but you can choose your friends. The same root *ǵéus- developed into Persian دوست duust "friend", i.e. (originally) one who is chosen:
🔊 https://www.ancientsounds.net/eastern-origins/PIE-geus-to-Persian-duust.wav
@linguistics #linguistics #etymology #EnglishLanguage #AcousticPhonetics #phonetics #ProtoIndoEuropean #Iranian #Persian
𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 𝗘𝘁𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘆, 𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀
Here's a classic of Proto-Indo-European reconstruction. The English word "brother" descends from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr, perhaps something like this (listen):
🔊 https://www.ancientsounds.net/eastern-origins/brother-from-PIE-bhrater.wav
*bʰréh₂tēr also developed into Old Persian 𐎲𐎼𐎠𐎫𐎠 (b-r-a-t-a) and then Modern Persian برادر barodar:
🔊 https://www.ancientsounds.net/eastern-origins/PIE-bhrater-to-Persian-barodar.wav
and related forms in most other Indo-European languages.
Image source: Persian Wikipedia, https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/برادر
@linguistics #linguistics #etymology #EnglishLanguage #AcousticPhonetics #phonetics #ProtoIndoEuropean #Iranian #Persian