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Christian DiCanio

@cdicanio.bsky.social
1.2K followers 668 following 1.5K posts

Phonetician and linguist studying prosody and indigenous languages of Mexico / Fonetista y lingüista que estudia idiomas indígenas de México. University at Buffalo. He - él - il - sij³. 🏳️‍🌈 Also ttrpg (rifts, d&d) www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~cdicanio

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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 7h
I've been toying around with acoustic measures for nasalization recently and I'm kind of curious if it just makes sense to let the spectra speak for themselves. #linguistics #phonetics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I feel like perhaps I am weird in literally not using any AI tool for anything I do. I have no AI in classes I teach either. I decided a few years ago that I am not going to adjust how I teach or do research to accommodate tools promoting intellectual laziness. Every bit of my content is old school.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
All phoneticians work on acoustic models based on phonetic descriptions. These descriptions form the basis for theories. Stevens' (2000) seminal tome on acoustic phonetics was based on recordings of his own voice. It's often understood as "generic", but there is no such thing. 1/2 #linguistics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
ICPhS extended the deadline to 10/9! What a relief! We have a little time to make sure we all can get things submitted in time. I'm elated since I had such a busy September and we're still processing data for our paper. icphs2027.ca/call-for-pap...
icphs2027.ca
Call for Papers – ICPHS 2027
The organizing committee is pleased to announce the call for papers for the 21st International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, which will take place on August 9–13, 2027, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, has launched.
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Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"Disturbingly, many men point to women outnumbering men in college enrollment as evidence that feminism is ruining the world and unfairly penalizing men...But men are not structurally or legally prohibited from attending college as women were decades ago. Men are choosing not to go to college".
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Dan Isbell @danielrisbell.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Very good news. The proposed rule has had universities, from the top all the way down to individual departments, scrambling to figure out how to continue supporting international students. Good to be relieved of all that... for now.
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Dan Isbell @danielrisbell.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
New Pew survey on attitudes toward additional language study in the US: www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
pewresearch.org
What do Americans think about language learning in U.S. schools?
Four-in-ten Americans say it is extremely or very important for children growing up in the U.S. to learn a language other than English.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Successfully ran my first @roll20.net Rifts game today with people on the east coast and, randomly, Western Australia. We played for about 4 hours and had fun. It’s another homebrew of mine about getting access to a big secret auction run by a rival gang. Your gang boss wants access and information.
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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 06/09/2026
I’m going to need everyone who’s reporting on AI psychosis and how it’s making people, especially men, come up with theories of everything to please talk with the scientists who have been getting multiple emails from “theory of everything” guys for decades
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Indranil Dutta @academicmargin.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Mermelstein (1967); Schroeder (1967) provided ways of estimating the vocal tract transfer transfer function from tube models by looking into the anti-symmetric Fourier coefficients of the formants for open-close tubes. 50 years hence, our most important contribution is everyone measuring #VOT 🤦
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Why do linguists love theoreticians so much more than other types of linguists? Like, I think more linguists should love typology and fieldwork, but it seems like it’s not on the radar of many. Cordially, a bad theoretician.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Phoneticians talk too much about formant normalization and too little about accuracy in estimation (but see Shadle et al 2016, Zhang 2022). Your normalization is useless if your data is wrong. #linguistics #phonetics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Looking for articles (for undergrads) that provide an overview of all of the following topics: (a) kinship/address terms in linguistics (b) conversational structure (c) speech acts (d) multilingualism and code-switching/mixing (e) language and public policy #linguistics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
It's so hard to keep a group together for ttrpg. Like, it sometimes works but then someone has an issue and things are cancelled. I tried to run the same campaign in Buffalo and then Hamden but each stalled after one (fun) session.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
There is literally no reason for Excel to erase the clipboard when you save a spreadsheet. Like, I should be able to copy, save, then paste.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
People talk far too much on trains. Or maybe I just want it to be a quiet space to read. I mean, I also just watch videos with subtitles and no audio (whether I’m alone or not). I think I have always gotten overwhelmed by too much noise and acoustics in my environment.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Linguistics textbooks that could do well in the US: (a) a sociolinguistics textbook not written from a UK perspective -and- actually written for undergrads (b) a phonetics/phonology book that covers both at a basic level (not much acoustics, no OT) (c) a book about writing not by an Indo-Europeanist
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The UB bookstore never told me the textbook I ordered was out of print. Now I have to request a new one a few weeks before classes start. Any suggestions for a basic sociolinguistics book for “this is a gen-ed” students?
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
When it comes to the question of clitics, Carmen thinks you should sleep on it.
A tuxedo cat sleeping its head on two books on clitics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I think I've finished the noun phrase chapter of my grammar finally. Parts of it were really fun to write (especially the tonal alternation part), but my general chapter conclusion, if a grammar can have one, is that Triqui disprefers heavy NPs. 1/n #linguistics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
In downtown Philly! Look at the view!
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
So, I'm curious if the locals who came up with this actually implicitly have some knowledge of the Northern Cities vowel shift. #linguistics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The greatest accomplishment of our age is the degree to which we're still able to do smart, engaged, dedicated, and caring work while the world's on fire and we're taking care of our health/families. It's nothing short of incredible. Pause or doomscroll and you're liable to lose your wits about you.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Does anyone know where MidPhon 31 will be? The conference was in Indiana in 2025, but it does not appear anywhere on the web for 2026. Maybe in 2027? Several people at LabPhon were talking about it being a good venue for research.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Unsure if I should make a big deal about the fact that Triqui doesn’t like more than one adjective per NP in my grammar. Color + size are ok, but anything else has to be it’s own stative phrase. But also, how often do English speakers actually produce multiple adjectives in an NP? #linguistics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
The wind and thunderstorm were crazy last night. A major branch fell off our tree onto our carport. Though, I’m happy to be moving around and functioning again (and happy to be back in CT even if the house work never ends).
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Day 8 of my surgery recovery. I'm doing much better. I will only have to lay on my side until tomorrow. On a brighter note, I'm going w/Paul to the ICM in Philly at the end of July. Anyone around Philly want to hang? I'll see museums and other things, but coffee/lunch with people would also be nice.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I miss conversation. Recovering on my side for a week looking too much at my phone sucks.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Oh no. No no no no. GenAI is absolutely NOT about access to information. It is about despoiling our information ecosystem. And the text extruded from chatbots is absolutely NOT expression, since no one is expressing themselves there.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The default setting of Zoom to share presenter view in PowerPoint and not full screen is a massive technical failure and annoyance in teaching and giving talks.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
I attended a lot of #labphon20 remotely yesterday and today and I've been very impressed with the talks. It has been a respite during my surgical recovery. I was especially happy to hear so many people talking about micro and macro studies of phenomena and also on fieldwork. #linguistics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I have a second retinal reattachment surgery tomorrow morning. I've come to terms with it over the past few days, cancelling all my plans to go to Montreal and our plans for a Quebec vacation. The most helpful things are actually people calling or visiting to chat when I am laying down for a week.
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Not an expert but I believe this is a description of lawbreaking: "the agency appears to be defying a congressional directive in the final FY 2026 appropriations bill that 'No [NSF] directorate shall receive more than a 5 percent reduction relative to the fiscal year 2024 enacted level'"
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
See you at LabPhon next week and CorpusPhon2 the week after. Our website has a (slightly) revised schedule with abstracts posted as well. #linguistics #phonetics sites.google.com/view/corpusp...
sites.google.com
CorpusPhon 2 - Schedule
Monday, June 29, 2026
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
actionnetwork.org/letters/oppo...
actionnetwork.org
Oppose OMB Proposal to Put ALL Federal Government Funding Decisions in the Hands of Political Appointees
On May 29, 2026, the Office of Management and Budget issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), OMB-2026-0034, Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance. The scope of this proposed regulation is...
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Simon J. Greenhill @simongreenhill.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Is there a gay pride for queer people who are trying but feel like they are mostly failing? Who have never learned to trust positive affirmations? A quiet pride for those of us who just need someone to hold their hand for a little while and listen?
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Should this go somewhere else? Comments? christiandicanio.blogspot.com/2026/06/dear...
christiandicanio.blogspot.com
Dear AI Assistant
Dear AI Assistant, I am trying to read my student's undergraduate thesis. The idea that you want to just summarize this makes me sick. Do y...
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
I wrote this thing. It’s imperfect but it’s something that is up and perhaps useful to students and early post-docs. Ideas are welcome. #linguistics christiandicanio.blogspot.com/2026/06/how-...
christiandicanio.blogspot.com
How to write a good background section in a linguistics paper
Becoming a research linguist is a rough business. When graduate students enter into a linguistics program, they have all sorts of different ...
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
At what price will you stop buying certain nice things? A decent bar of dark chocolate? $5 A cappuccino? $7 A loaf of bakery bread? $9 Nice cheese? $15 These are my limits, apparently. I will go without instead of paying this price or higher.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Europeans: “The US is not doing anything about fascism!” Americans: “I went to 3 protests so far this year, volunteered at P, and boycotted X, Y, Z.” Europeans: “Why don’t we see any of this?” Americans: “Because national and international media does not cover it, c.f. fascist control of the media."
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The moment I feel that the author of an article just wants to get the background literature section "over and done with quickly," I lose respect for them.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Are words like “necessarily”, “only”, “completely”, and “finally” modal adverbs? Or is there a better name for them? I want to distinguish between these and things like manner adverbs for my grammar. I’m probably not thinking about this correctly though. @rhenderson.net ? @nickfleisher.bsky.social ?
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
If I’m writing an entire grammar, is it worthwhile to still try to submit a grammar sketch somewhere? Think of it as the tl;dr version perhaps?
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
AI mostly assumes that people will not want to read. So, it creates stupid lists of things since it assumes powerpointification is easier to interpret. It’s just easier to tabulate, but when the details matter, the whole world is not one big tl;dr.
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Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 01/05/2026
As workers around the world rally to mark May Day, International Workers’ Day, we speak with organizers in Los Angeles and Chicago.
democracynow.org
“No School, No Work, No Shopping”: Workers, Immigrants to Lead Thousands of May Day Protests
As workers around the world rally to mark May Day, International Workers' Day, we speak with organizers in Los Angeles and Chicago. The May Day Strong coalition here in the United States says 3,000 protests and events are scheduled across the country wi...
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Juan Diego Rodriguez @juand-r.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
US activists plan May Day economic blackout: ‘No school, no work, no shopping’
Actions expected to exceed 3,000 as unions and groups expand protests inspired by Minnesota ICE crackdown
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Sesamoiditis requires that i wear a dumb boot and walk like an old man for 3 more weeks at least. My foot hurts and I'm supposed to stay off of it, but work and life is supposed to still happen. I kinda need people to just do things for me. I'm not good at this.
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Is there an undergraduate textbook in sociolinguistics that does not assume any background in linguistics? Bonus if it is not anglo-centric or focused on British dialectology EXTRA bonus if it includes things like homework exercises. #linguistics
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Christian DiCanio @cdicanio.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Unabashedly queer from the Irrepressibles. They’ve become one of my favorite artists. I love the lead’s vocals and the instrumentation. Most of their work is deeply introspective and hits hard, whether it’s sorrowful or plucky and waltzy like Two Hearts (from 2025). www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKkY...
youtube.com
Two Hearts - The Irrepressibles (audio)
YouTube video by The Irrepressibles
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