Alexandra Pfiffner @ampfiffner.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Super excited to see this work with @baichendu.bsky.social in print! We did an audiovisual production experiment with native speakers of Mandarin, focusing on the co-variance of lip gestures and acoustic cues. 🎥🎤👄 030
Alexandra Pfiffner @ampfiffner.bsky.social · 05/08/2026I’ve been sitting on some big news for a while. Time to share. :) After four amazing years as a lecturer at UC Berkeley, I’m now a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia. I am beyond excited for this next chapter! 0120
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerGretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 27/06/2026Someone suggested today at @labphon.bsky.social that academic posters need a QR code going to an email signup for "please send me the official version of this paper once it's done and citable" And all I could say was YES PLEASE CAN I HELP TWEET THIS INTO EXISTENCE 08524
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerJulie A. Hochgesang @jahochcam.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Pleased to share that “ASL Signbank” through Cambridge Elements (Sign Language Series) is out! It’s free for the next two weeks. You can find it here doi.org/10.1017/9781... Thanks to Erin Wilkinson and David Quinto-Pozos, editors of Sign Language Series, for their support! #ASLSignbank 13323
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerAdam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Our new book on sign language linguistics (adapted from the 2007 Auslan linguistics book) isn't out until next month, but over 500 clips of BSL and ASL sign examples from the book can be downloaded now! Take a look at the resources section on the book's webpage. www.cambridge.org/highereducat...cambridge.orgSign Language Linguistics | Cambridge Aspire websiteDiscover Sign Language Linguistics, 1st Edition, Adam Schembri, HB ISBN: 9781107077140 on Cambridge Aspire website 03418
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerJen Hay @jbhay.bsky.social · 14/05/2026Published today. The vowel in 'just' is undergoing an independent sound change, separate from any changes to KIT or STRUT. Filed under the ever-growing category of "things that were supposed to be fun little papers, that unexpectedly ended up taking many years" www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...degruyterbrill.com 0165
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerJoey Stanley @joeystanley.com · 16/03/2026‼️🔔 My paper, "Hypercorrect Moun[tʰɨn] in Utah English", has now been published in English World-Wide. 🎉🥳🎊 tl;dr: Utahns say [tʰ] in words like "mountain" more than people in other regions. www.jbe-platform.com/content/jour...jbe-platform.comHypercorrect Moun[thɨn] in Utah EnglishAbstract This study analyzes unstressed /tən/ in words like button, kitten, and mountain. In Utah, there are three variants: North American mainstream [ʔn̩], forticized [thɨn], and local [ʔɨn]. While ... 3273
Alexandra Pfiffner @ampfiffner.bsky.social · 09/10/2025Super excited to share that my Afrikaans paper has been published! Following in the footsteps of Coetzee et al. (2018), I examine age and gender effects in the ongoing tonogenesis in Afrikaans. 📖 Open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...cambridge.orgWomen of All Ages Lead Tonogenesis in Afrikaans | Journal of Germanic Linguistics | Cambridge CoreWomen of All Ages Lead Tonogenesis in Afrikaans - Volume 37 Issue 3 190
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 07/03/2025This is actually the worst thing I’ve seen from federal granting agencies thus far. 27678223
Alexandra Pfiffner @ampfiffner.bsky.social · 18/01/2025I genuinely don't know how this started, but I absolutely love it 🐈⬛ 060
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerLingthusiasm @lingthusiasm.com · 17/01/2025After we released this bonus episode, very talented listener Melody sent us these photos of her own crocheted model of the vocal tract! She kindly gave us permission to share them publicly. If you too have a crocheted vocal tract that you've made, please send us pictures, we'd love to see more! 1011734
Alexandra Pfiffner @ampfiffner.bsky.social · 14/01/2025It’s fun to catch up with friends at #LSA2025 & #ADS2025, and WOTY is always a highlight. But nothing will beat @mkb933.bsky.social GIVING A TALK ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BEHALF (not a coauthor!), on short notice, while chairing the session, and then taking questions to pass on to authors. Legendary. 1101
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerBen Zimmer @benzimmer.bsky.social · 12/01/2025Proud to be a linguistic chaos gremlin. 17714
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerAndrea @teachbk.bsky.social · 13/01/2025Increased reliance on ChatGPT was associated with higher levels of procrastination and memory loss, and a negative impact on academic performance, as reflected in students’ grade point averages.” www.psypost.org/chatgpt-link...psypost.orgChatGPT linked to declining academic performance and memory loss in new studyNew research uncovers a concerning trend: while ChatGPT might aid students under academic pressure, its excessive use is linked to procrastination, memory loss, and poorer grades, highlighting a negat... 6244110
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerAmerican Dialect Society @americandialect.org · 11/01/2025"Rawdog" is the 2024 American Dialect Society word of the year. Read the full press release. #WOTY2024 #ADS2025 #LSA2025 americandialect.org/2024-word-of...americandialect.org2024 Word of the Year Is “Rawdog” - American Dialect SocietyPhiladelphia Marriott Downtown–Jan. 10—The American Dialect Society, in its 35th annual words-of-the-year vote, selected rawdog as the Word of the Year for 2024. More than three hundred attendees took... 49936
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerJosef Fruehwald @jofrhwld.bsky.social · 24/12/2024A lovely obituary for Bill Labov in the Inquirer.inquirer.comWilliam Labov, ‘father of sociolinguistics’ who studied the Philadelphia accent, dies at 97William Labov's work changed whose dialects linguists saw worthy of study and dove into the socioeconomic politics of language. He is considered the father of sociolinguistics. 220580
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerAdam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 18/12/2024Vale William Labov. Inspired by a colleague on X, I think my favourite Bill Labov quote is: “I have resisted the term *sociolinguistics* for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not social.” Thank you for everything, Bill. 121869
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerRandall Munroe @xkcd.com · 16/12/2024Phase Transition xkcd.com/3025 179203452470
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerEmily Myers @emilymyers.bsky.social · 13/12/2024Just did a calculation of our lab's time from project conception to publication (e-pub) over the past x years. We're averaging 3.5 years from the first idea to acceptance. About 6-9 months of this is review time. Don't know how typical this is but good reality check esp. for trainees. 1018338
Alexandra Pfiffner @ampfiffner.bsky.social · 10/12/2024A student just gave me the best gift and I will treasure it forever 😭🤍 0262
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerThe Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 24/11/2024The official motto of experimental linguists anyone? 0161
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerAleksandra Ćwiek @acwiek.bsky.social · 20/11/2024I'm excited to share our new study on cross-modal iconicity from our special issue in JASA! We show [r] is rough and [l] is smooth even in languages that conflate them within one phoneme. The effect is even stronger than the bouba/kiki effect!doi.orgThe alveolar trill is perceived as jagged/rough by speakers of different languagesTypological research shows that across languages, trilled [r] sounds are more common in adjectives describing rough as opposed to smooth surfaces. In this study 57620
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerWeverthon Machado @weverthon.com · 24/07/2024📊When teaching or giving a talk, do you like presenting plots step by step, revealing e.g. one group at a time? This is often useful for walking through complex results. I made a R package that makes it extremely easy to do this! ggreveal: Reveal a ggplot incrementally #rstats #dataviz #ggplot2weverthon.comReveal a ggplot incrementallyProvides functions that make it easy to reveal ggplot2 graphs incrementally. The functions take a ggplot2 object and return a list of plots showing data incrementally by panels, layers, groups, the va... 34392136
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerProf. EAGZ @emmmilygz.bsky.social · 29/06/2024One for the syntax folk 🐦🐦 281327325
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner🎮 Dr. Gremlin 😈 (they/she/any) @colorless.green · 08/06/2024look upon my works ye mighty and despair 74312
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerRasmus Puggaard-Rode @rpuggaardrode.bsky.social · 23/05/2024praatpicture 1.2.0 is now on CRAN, time for a HYPE THREAD 👀💅💯💥🍾🎉🎆 12813
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffnerem 🐊 @emrem.bsky.social · 30/04/2024I have some coloring sheets your language and #linguistics classes might enjoy for some finals season de-stressing! Here’s one of my students’ work! sites.google.com/view/ear-sci... 24719
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerTheresa Heyd @theresaheyd.bsky.social · 20/03/2024Lego Creator Expert: The Social Stratification of (r) in New York City Department Stores 15311
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerMelanie I Stefan @melanieistefan.bsky.social · 14/02/2024Roses are red Shapes have no sound Except kikis are pointy And boubas are round 05317
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerKirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 07/02/2024Hey, I'm finally recruiting for a paid study! This is for anyone over 18 and fluent in English who uses neopronouns (like "xe," "fae," "thon," etc) as their personal pronouns. If you're interested, you can sign up to receive more information at the link below! Please share far and wide!!forms.gleNeopronouns interview study interest formThis form is to express interest in participating in an interview study conducted by Professor Kirby Conrod at Swarthmore College. Completing this interest form is just to give us a way to contact ... 176161
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerRory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 18/10/2023Students discussing the IPA: "to make the vowels nasal, you give them a moustache" 2296
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerJoshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 02/02/2024Overheard in a class working on some phonetics exercises: “which one is the uh-oh sound” 0261
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerMatt Hunt Gardner (he/him) @matthuntgardner.bsky.social · 29/01/2024#linguistics Canadians are known for measuring distance in time (i.e *that’s about four hours away*). But what if we instead adopted “Canada geese” as a unit of measure? #canada #langsky www.jpost.com/science/arti...jpost.comAsteroid the size of 64 Canadian geese to pass Earth Tuesday - NASACalculations by NASA predict that the asteroid won't come anywhere close to Earth during its flyby. 2112
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerJessi Grieser @jessgrieser.com · 17/01/2024LingComm grants are live! Got a nacent LingComm project you need some additional funds to get off the ground? Apply before April 30. lingcomm.org/grants/ 01825
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerMatt Hunt Gardner (he/him) @matthuntgardner.bsky.social · 08/01/2024#Linguistics Wonder whether people are just as casual on Zoom as in-person? Are sociolinguistic interviews recorded online just as good at capturing *the vernacular* as those collected in people's living rooms? Check out my and VK's small study, published at last: doi.org/10.1515/ling...doi.orgGettin’ sociolinguistic data remotely: comparing vernacularity during online remote versus in-pers...The following paper examines the use of the stable sociolinguistic variable ( -ing ) across two different interview modalities: “classic” in-person sociolinguistic interviews and identical intervi... 0257
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerLauren "Hope is Praxis" Lastname @verbingnouns.bsky.social · 06/01/2024Intro phonetics classes 0273
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerAmerican Dialect Society @americandialect.org · 06/01/2024"Enshittification" is the 2023 American Dialect Society word of the year. Read the full press release. americandialect.org/2023-word-of... 3382197
Alexandra Pfiffner @ampfiffner.bsky.social · 06/01/2024Me after my “Kenaissance” nomination won most creative word of the year #WOTY2023 #ADS2024 0110
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerAmerican Dialect Society @americandialect.org · 05/01/2024Now posted: The full list of nominees for ADS Word of the Year 2023. The final vote will be held this evening at 7:30 pm in the Metro East Ballroom at Sheraton Times Square. #WOTY2023 #ADS2024 #LSA2024 americandialect.org/nominations-... 14625
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerJoshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 19/12/2023New mary/merry/marry example just dropped ! 1173
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerAlan Yu @aclyu.bsky.social · 18/12/2023The Life Cycle of Language, our festschrift for Andrew Garrett, is now published! global.oup.com/academic/pro... 0143
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerRyagon @ryagon.bsky.social · 06/12/2023Currently thinking about divination with runes, but instead of runes you have IPA characters. "You got a /w/, which normally would mean you're well-rounded and glide easily through tough and complex situations. But since you got it upside-down, instead you just seem pretentious and weird." 24710
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerGasper Begus @begus.bsky.social · 05/12/2023Sperm whales have equivalents to human vowels. We uncovered spectral properties in whales’ clicks that are recurrent across whales, independent of traditional types, and compositional. We got clues to look into spectral properties from our AI interpretability technique CDEV. 12215
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerChristopher Carignan @carignan.bsky.social · 08/12/2023Advice for the "earbuds method" of measuring nasalance: bandpass filter your signal to approximately the 400-700Hz range before calculating nasalance, regardless of the earbud type used. Incidentally, this is very close to the 300-750Hz filter range already recommended for nasometers! 133
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerGretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 20/11/2023Today in linguists are NOT KIDDING when we say that your capacity for language enables you to understand sentences that have never before been uttered in human history. 3532189
Reposted by Alexandra PfiffnerKathryn C-K @kathrynck.bsky.social · 15/11/2023Beginning of term: Here is a kind but structured late policy Middle of term: Oh wow, I'm behind on your grading! Late penalty amnesty through Oct 30th! End of term: Literally just told a student "Time is meaningless and life is chaos" 2467