Upcoming Roadrunner Series

Spring 2024

Traditional forms of speech adaptation for distance communication and musical surrogacy

Julien Meyers, PhD

May 1st, 2024 (HUM 134, 1-2p) 

The High Desert Linguistics Society is proud to host Julien Meyer, PhD, a renowned expert on whistled languages. Dr. Meyer's work is associated with the French National Center for Scientific Research. He will be in New Mexico to speak at the Santa Fe Institute and so we are capitalizing on the opportunity to also have him here at UNM!

Dr. Meyer has published the book Whistled Languages:

A Worldwide Inquiry on Human Whistled Speech, in addition to numerous journal articles and other publications.

Here are some examples, with intriguing titles!

• Meyer, J., Magnasco, M.O., & Reiss, D. (2021). The relevance of human whistled languages for the analysis and decoding of dolphin communication. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpsyg.2021.689501.
• Meyer, J. (2021). Environmental and linguistic typology of whistled languages. Annual Review of Linguistics, 7, 493-510.
• Meyer, J. (2008). Typology and acoustic strategies of whistled languages: phonetic comparison and perceptual cues of whistled vowels., 38, 69-94.

Zoom link for online attendees:

Using ultrasound imaging in phonetics and laboratory phonology research

Daejin Kim

April 24th, 2024 (LLC Lab #2, 1-2p)

Ultrasound tongue imaging is one of the most popular articulatory methods that enable us to investigate the articulation of the tongue and the larynx (Kochetov, 2020; Stone, 2005, 2010). It has been increasingly used to understand phonetic and phonological phenomena related to vowels and consonants, as well as any possible phonetic and phonological relationships between the two in various languages. Tongue contour differences can be estimated by directly imaging tongue contours at certain time points across contexts. Movement dynamics can also be estimated by calculating the movement characteristics of the observed tongue parts. Using the EchoBlaster 128 and the Articulate Assistant Advanced software (Articulate Instruments, 2023), the presenter will demonstrate how to run the ultrasound system and acquire, process, and analyze the collected data. Participants will be able to incorporate this technology into a new research topic in phonetics and phonology. Also, the presenter will discuss some new findings on the articulation of the tongue in American English and Seoul Korean bilabial obstruents.

Interpreters available upon request! Please email hdls@unm.edu as soon as possible!

Zoom link: https://https://unm.zoom.us/j/9480559518