Research

My main areas of interest are

World Englishes, especially Indian English(es): I focus on the phonetics and phonology of varieties of English as it is spoken in countries where it is a second or foreign language, and have published on the characteristics of various kinds of Indian English (from L1 speakers of Tami & Gujarati, Tibeto-Burman, and Dravidian languages), plus the phonetics/phonology of English spoken by L1 Thai and Chinese speakers.  I am currently working on a project on attitudes towards Indian English (with PhD student Ethan Kutlu), North East Indian Englishes (with Professor Priyankoo Sarmah of IIT-Guwahati), and Hong Kong English (with Professor Si Chen of Hong Kong Polytechnic).

Tones: I am interested in expanding the data on tone systems to new languages, which involves basic descriptions of previously understudied languages using the latest phonetic and phonological tools (resulting in publications on Tiwa, Mizo, and Dimasa with my colleague Professor Sarmah).  A second tone-related issue is the difficulty in separating co-articulation (primarily phonetic) from tone sandhi (primarily phonological), leading to work on Mandarin and Nanjing Chinese with colleagues Si Chen, Bin Li, and Ratree Wayland.

Phonology:  My focus within theoretical phonology has been syllable phonology, including its interactions with morphology, phonetics, and second language acquisition, in various languages including Spanish, Tamil, and Arabic.   I have also applied theoretical phonology to Indian Englishes.

ORCID: 0000-0002-3336-3436