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Samuel Akinbo

@akinbosk.bsky.social
242 followers 299 following 71 posts

A linguist with interest in phonology, phonetics, community-based research and language-music connections. akinbosk.github.io

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Reposted by Samuel Akinbo
Darin Flynn @phono-logical.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
“Issues in sequencing: from features to phrases” by Eirini Apostolopoulou and Martin Krämer (Sep. ’26) academic.oup.com/book/63273/c...
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ANU Press @anupress.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
🚨OUT NOW🚨 ‘The Mariana Islands: People, History and Archaeology’ explores the history and archaeology of the Marianas through new research that brings archaeological evidence into conversation with CHamoru memory, oral history and cultural practice. Get your copy: doi.org/10.22459/TA59.2026
ANU Press New Release. Cover image of The Mariana Islands.
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Endangered Languages Project @e-l-p.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
If you’ve seen this article, you may be sitting with anger, pain, or just exhaustion at dealing with another helping of colonial nonsense. We feel a responsibility to speak back when these colonizing narratives show up, yet again, in such a prominent venue. endangeredlanguages.com/story/respon...
New Yorker article title "Sometimes It's Okay to Let a Language Die" with "Sometimes It's" crossed out in red ink and "IT'S NOT" written above it. To the right is text "A Response to The New Yorker" and the ELP logo.
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Cambridge University Press - Linguistics @cambup-linguistics.cambridge.org · 12/07/2026
Update your bookmarks and sign up for email alerts - the journals of the @lingsocam.bsky.social are now publishing with Cambridge! 📧 cup.org/4tHungN #LangSky #Language #Phonology #JBLAC
The journals of the Linguistic Society of America
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. Yes, the patterns are consistent with your proposal that the expressiveness–integration relation is gradient. You are right that the phrase "does not completely hold" in our paper does make it sound as though we are claiming to falsify a categorical universal.
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Cambridge University Press - Linguistics @cambup-linguistics.cambridge.org · 19/06/2026
Beyond Words by Karen Stollznow From first words to last, this book explores how we learn, use, and lose language, and what it reveals about us. 📚 cup.org/4otVGc1
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Elisabeth J. Kerr @elisabethjkerr.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Tunen diminution: - nouns in class 19/13 - change nouns from other classes to 19/13 + reduplication of noun stem - form compound "child + N" - "small of N" - "small N" - verbal suffix indicating the action is short in duration / incompletely done - verbal suffix indicating object is small (!)
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
The Nigerian Pidgin words are swẹ̀gbẹ̀ expert, ọ́díó expert, saparistic expert, yàhóó expert.
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Reposted by Samuel Akinbo
Rasmus Puggaard-Rode @rpuggaardrode.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
praatpicture has a couple new features in the newly released version 1.8.0! You can now embed audio with a moving cursor to your figures (thanks Marina Cantarutti, and thanks to @sorensorensen.bsky.social for donating his voice!) 1/3
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 18/04/2026
After advancements in gene editing led to the successful treatment of life-threatening health conditions, some tech bros are considering a new application for the controversial science: making super-smart babies to save the world from dangerously capable AI.
ow.ly
Creating baby geniuses to thwart the AI threat? (Yes, really.)
The new wave of Silicon Valley–backed gene-editing startups is straight out of “Brave New World.”
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Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
we need more linguists because i don't want to have to explain to otherwise educated people that there's no such thing as a "biological pronoun"
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Reposted by Samuel Akinbo
UofC Linguistics @ucalgaryling.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Kiana Gardner on “Processing of prosodic information by (Canadian) English speakers” at today’s Verbatim Colloquium, organized annually by our Undergraduate Linguistics Society. Joint work with Prof. Athanasopoulou and Dr. Nikolić in the University of Calgary Developmental Psycholinguistics Lab
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UofC Linguistics @ucalgaryling.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Elijah Durocher on “Vowel mergers in Cavite Chavacano” at today’s Verbatim Colloquium, organized annually by the University of Calgary Undergraduate Linguistics Society
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UofC Linguistics @ucalgaryling.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Closing remarks at the Verbatim Colloquium by Jessica Wong, president of the University of Calgary Undergraduate Linguistics Society
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MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
"Even in a neighbourhood you think you already know, you can learn completely new things."
psyche.co
How to get to know your neighbourhood | Psyche Guides
Whether you are a newcomer or you’ve lived there for years, learn to look closer and deepen your connection
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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 04/04/2026
In a Working Scientist profile, conservation researcher Anne Poelina speaks with Nature Careers about giving first authorship to a source with deep knowledge about water, the river itself. 🌍 🧪
go.nature.com
Why I made a river my co-author
Anne Poelina gives first authorship to a source with deep knowledge about water — the river itself.
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Contributions: 1. Grammatical tone can target ideophones. 2. Iconicity can condition the realization of grammatical tone. 3. Open word classes in Mwaghavul are grouped into ideophonic and nonideophonic. 4. Documentation and description of the language.
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
This pattern of iconicity exists across languages (e.g., [plisti-plasta] ‘splish-splash’ and [zipirti-zaparta] ‘left, right, and centre’ & ([plisti-plasta] ‘splish-splash’ in Basque Ibarretxe-Antuñano 2017; [wàkà-wáká] 'walking about' in Nigerian Pidgin Akinbo 2025).
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
The association of opposite feature values with a phonological form and its reduplicant in expressing the distinguishability of otherwise identical elements is a pattern of iconicity.
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
To express pluractionality, both types of ideophones are reduplicated and follow the M-H melody (e.g., [wūlāʃ] ‘be distinguishably wide open’ vs. [wūlāʃ-wúláʃ] 'be distinguishably wide open.PL). The alternations also express that identical elements are distinguishable in time, space, energy, etc.
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
The first tonal alternation involves a mid tone ([wùlàʃ] ‘wide open’ vs. [wūlāʃ] ‘be distinguishably wide open’) and the second tonal alternation involves a mid-high melody ([vwàplàs] ‘oversized’ vs. ([vwāplás] ‘be distinguishably oversized’).
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
New Paper with Tongpan Rabo Fwangwar, titled "Iconicity and expressiveness of grammatical tones targeting ideophones in Mwaghavul". All tonally derived verbs in Mwaghavul have ideophonic bases and are derived through one of two lexically determined alternations. doi.org/10.1007/s110...
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Darin Flynn @phono-logical.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
“Articulatory correlates of consonantal length contrasts: The case of Japanese mimetic geminates” by Francesco Burroni, Shigeto Kawahara and Jason A. Shaw (Jan. ’25) doi.org/10.1121/10.0...
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Darin Flynn @phono-logical.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
“Sound symbolism can count three segments (whereas phonological constraints presumably cannot)” by Shigeto Kawahara and Gakuji Kumagai (July ’25) www.researchgate.net/profile/Shig...
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De Gruyter Brill Linguistics @dgb-linguistics.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
💡New publication: In the latest volume of Pacific Linguistics, William B. McGregor provides a full grammatical description of Warrwa (north-western Australia), based on fieldwork with the last two speakers of the language. 🔗https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111401959
Cover of the book "A Grammar of Warrwa", on a green background featuring the De Gruyter Brill logo.
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
More than $3000 USD for open access fee. Kuku comot my head na!
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IHPST | University of Toronto @ihpst-uoft.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
New publication by Prof. Adrien Zakar 🗺️ “Gimmicks of War” shows how Ottoman maps were reactivated to legitimize territorial claims, mobilized as affective tools of political authority 🔗https://read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/article/45/3/429/402209/Gimmicks-of-War @dukepress.bsky.social #History #STS
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Mark Dingemanse @markdingemanse.net · 13/03/2026
We've revamped the Futures of Language website! Read about the project, team, papers, and other news at futuresoflanguage.org Also, our weekly updates are collated in the Futures Library, a growing collection of short pieces on ideas & people that drive the project: futuresoflanguage.org/library/
Screenshot of Futures of Language landing page at https://futuresoflanguage.org, with tagline "Human interaction is too important to be left into the hands of merchants of hype."

Text continues: "We study artisanal and artificial ways of languaging to better understand language + technology, and to reimagine our linguistic futures."

Features a tricolour image of strands representing the three lines of work in the project.Screenshot of Futures of Language library page with two recent posts. One by Samira Ibnelkaïd: Sara Ahmed & the Killjoy Ethics. One by Mark Dingemanse: The Stories we weave around "Technology".Screenshot of lower part of Futures of Language landing page showing a quotation by Prof. Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo: "Creativity is so much about trying out new weird things - and AI is so much about averaging. It's the people invested in playing in that space of the anomaly and playing with the unexpected who will continue to thrive."

Page also shows some logo's of the home base and funder of the Futures of Language project.
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Reposted by Samuel Akinbo
Lameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
I realise this is like focusing on kitchen hygiene in the Titanic at this point, but: the LLM the NEH asked "Does the following relate at all to DEI?" (!) usually - though inconsistently - cited language documentation and preservation as grounds for grant termination. ("Yes" => "Defund")
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Darin Flynn @phono-logical.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
“Tomoip phonetics and phonology” by Russell Barlow and Don Killian (2023) pure.mpg.de/rest/items/i...
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Does anyone know a copy editor who specializes in editing phonetics and phonology paper? I need their service. I don't want to pay any company #linguistics #language #phonology
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Reposted by Samuel Akinbo
Thomas Van Hoey 司馬智 @simazhi.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Day three of #IcoLL In the blink of an eye it’s already over. Here’s Pamela Perniss during the final keynote.
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Thomas Van Hoey 司馬智 @simazhi.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Opening of #IcoLL, *the* conference on iconicity in language and literature. Looking forward to sharing and learning much. And of course reconnecting with and meeting new scholars. And all of this in Nagoya, Japan! #ILL26 #IcoSem26 #IcoLL26
Opening of IcoLL
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Michael Pleyer @symbolicstorage.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
This new paper in Science is also accompanied by a cool perspective piece by @mperlman.bsky.social & @bodowinter.bsky.social! #language #linguistics www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
In search of meaning
The origins of language are not found in the bouba-kiki effect
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Darin Flynn @phono-logical.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
“The Vastness of Language Variation Across the Globe” organized by Lenore Grenoble and Jeff Good today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Phoenix, AZ aaas.confex.com/aaas/2026/me...
aaas.confex.com
The Vastness of Language Variation Across the Globe
Recent advances in machine learning have put an emphasis on the role of big data in studying language structure and linguistic diversity. However, the languages for which there are big data represent ...
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Interspeech 2026 @interspeech.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
'Queer and Trans Speech Science and Technology', an #Interspeech2026 Special Session offering a space to build community and provide a foundation for future trans- and queer-driven speech research sites.google.com/view/is-quee...
To the right, a microphone resting on a small Pride flag. To the left, dark blue background with white text 'Queer and Trans Speech Science and Technology', with Interspeech 2026 logo above, and website interspeech2026.org below.
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SFU Linguistics & Indigenous Languages @sfulinguistics.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Join us for the SFU Multilingual Week keynote by Kyra Borland, titled “Many Worlds: Experiences working in Indigenous language revitalization outside academia.” Feb 26, 12:30pm. Zoom: Email lingcomm@sfu.ca for the link. Register & learn more: www.sfu.ca/linguistics/... @sfu.ca
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Greg Woodin @gregwoodin.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Our paper (w/ @bodowinter.bsky.social and @mperlman.bsky.social) is finally out, officially 🥳. In it, we set ourselves the lofty goal of defining iconicity, focusing on its subjectivity, context-dependence, and gradability. Let us know if you agree with our definition? 🤔 doi.org/10.1093/oxfo...
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Linguistic Society of America @lingsocam.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
History of Publishing on Black Language and Culture Friday, February 6, 2025 | 6–7:30 PM ET Join JBLAC for an illuminating conversation on the history of publishing practices surrounding Black language and culture. www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...
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Study Association TWIST @studieverenigingtwist.nl · 31/01/2026
Call for Abstracts: The T.W.I.S.T. conference is back again, and we're looking for linguists! Whether you're undergraduate (BA), graduate (MA) or postgraduate (PhD), we want you to present your findings! If this seems interesting to you, please fill out the form below! forms.gle/U648GG813EjJ...
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Thank you so much! I will implement it now.
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Hi Rasmus, I tried using the function spec_axis but it doesn't give the desired results. Rotating the ticks on the Frequency axis does work either. I end up getting something like the result below. Do you have any advice on how to get number of ticks for spec_axis?
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
This is the code in text: \begin{forest} [L, for tree={parent anchor=south, child anchor=north} [a, tier=word, edge=dashed][s, no edge][k, no edge][u, tier=word, edge=dashed][u, no edge][e,tier=word, edge=dashed][t, no edge]] \end{forest}
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
The function "no edge" omits a line, allowing the association line to skip a specific segment. The function "edge-dashed" creates dashed line, indicating spreading.
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
I use forest. An example can be found in this image. The example also contains a picture of the code. To associate multiple segments to a single tone, I grow the tree upside down.
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
*exception
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
With the except of indicating delinking, I have drawn trees like this in forest. Tikz is too complicated for me.
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Big Book of R @bigbookofr.com · 09/01/2026
Statistical Rethinking with brms, ggplot2, and the tidyverse Second edition by A Solomon Kurz #RStats bigbookofr.com/chapters/statistics.…
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Samuel Akinbo @akinbosk.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Seeing this, the Yorùbá ideophone wàràwàrà “the sound of snow or rain falling” comes to my mind. It’s interesting that I assumed you are trying to elicit an ideophone for the event in the picture. Lol!
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