Sky Onosson
This site contains information on my research & work as a linguist and data scientist.
On this page
- About me
- Research projects - descriptions & collaborators
- Research output - papers, talks, posters
- Teaching and work experience
About Me
My research revolves around the fields of phonetics, phonology, sociolinguistics, and quantitative methodology. A lot of my work has looked at the temporal/dynamic properties of vowel production, such as diphthongs, from both phonological and phonetic points of view. I make heavy use of the statistical coding language R for developing models of language production and visualizing the results of my analyses.
I am a graduate of the University of Manitoba (B.A. and M.A.) and the University of Victoria (Ph.D.).
I currently serve as a Research Officer for the Government of British Columbia and an Adjunct Professor of Linguistics for the University of Victoria.
I have previously taught courses in Linguistics at the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg, and Simon Fraser University.
My academic CV contains much more information on all of the above. I also have an industry-facing resume which emphasizes my practical skills and experience.
Research projects
I am currently involved in several active research projects which include, in no particular order:
Variation and change in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese. Since 2015, in collaboration with Dr. Christiani Pinheiro Thompson (University of Saskatchewan), we have recorded more than 80 multi-media intervews with nearly 180 middle-school children in urban Rio de Janeiro. We recently presented some of our findings at the Canadian Linguistic Association 2021 meeting, and are currently preparing an article on phonetic erosion processes associated with grammaticalization, with several other papers in the early stages of development.
The vowels of Media Lengua. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Jesse Stewart (University of Saskatchewan). Media Lengua is a mixed language spoken in Ecuador whose lexicon is mainly Spanish-origin, fitted into a vowel system which derives from that of Quichua. Our current work focuses on how vowel-sequences from different-origin source languages are handled in Media Lengua, from both phonetic and phonological perspectives. Two papers resulting from this collaboration have recently been published by Language and Speech and Laboratory Phonology.
Phonetic analysis of Indigenous Languages of British Columbia. This work is a collaboration with Dr. Sonya Bird (University of Victoria), involving research on the Coast Salish language Hul’q’umi’num’ spoken on Vancouver Island, and the Athabaskan language Tsilhqot’in spoken in the interior of B.C. Our most recent paper on fricative production in the Tsilhqot’in language has been published via Open Access in the Journal of the International Phonetica Association; we are currently working on a follow-up study focusing on retraction. My work on Hul’q’umi’num’ has looked at diphthong production differences between fluent elders and language learners, leading to two conference presentations, including a published proceedings.
Ethnoloinguistic variation in Manitoba/Prairie English. This research is centred on Dr. Nicole Rosen’s Canada Research Chair-funded Languages in the Prairies Project (LIPP). I have documented some distinctive ethnolinguistic patterns in some phonological processes within the Filipino and Mennonite communities in Manitoba, leading to two conference presentations, including a published proceedings. A paper of mine documenting prevelar raising in Manitoba based on LIPP data appears in the Journal of English Linguistics.
Research output
This site hosts archived copies of most of my published or presented work going back to my 2010 master’s thesis, all of which are listed on my full CV. The list below combines peer-reviewed publications, current papers I have in some state of preparation, conference presentations, invited talks, workshops, and media interviews, in chronological order, and includes active links to copies of publications which are available for download:
| Year | Title (local download links) | Journal / Forum / Venue (external links) |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Cotopaxi Media Lengua vowels: A preliminary analysis (with Jesse Stewart) | In preparation for ICPhS20 |
| Vowel raising in Cotopaxi Quichuan languages (with Jesse Stewart) | In preparation for ICPhS20 | |
| Form, function, and reduction: Phonetic erosion in the grammaticalization of Brazilian Portuguese tipo (with Christiani Thompson) | In preparation | |
| “Chilcotin flattening” revisited: A phonetic investigation of Tsilhqot’in retraction effects (with Sonya Bird) | In preparation | |
| Quotative constructions in spoken vernacular Brazilian Portuguese (with Christiani Thompson) | In preparation | |
| Canadian Shift amidst demographic shift: Ethnolinguistic effects in Western Canadian English vowels (with Nicole Rosen and Lanlan Li) | In preparation | |
| 2022 | Prevelar vowel raising and merger in Manitoba English | Journal of English Linguistics (open access) |
| A phonetic case study of Tŝilhqot’in /z/ and /zʕ/ - preprint (with Sonya Bird) | Journal of the International Phonetic Association (open access) | |
| 2021 | The effects of language contact on non-native vowel sequences in lexical borrowings: The case of Media Lengua (with Jesse Stewart) | Language and Speech (open access) |
| A multi-method approach to correlate identification in acoustic data: The case of Media Lengua (with Jesse Stewart) | Laboratory Phonology (open access) | |
| Phonetic change in the grammaticalization of Brazilian Portuguese tipo (with Christiani Thompson) | Canadian Linguistic Association | |
| 2020 | The effects of language contact on non-native diphthongs in lexical borrowings: The case of Media Lengua (with Jesse Stewart) | Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, New Orleans LA |
| Ethnolinguistic Vowel Differentiation in Manitoba English | American Dialect Society, New Orleans LA | |
| TRAP-raising and the Canadian/Low-Back-Merger Shift in Prairie English (accepted–did not present due to Covid19) | Canadian Linguistic Association, Western University | |
| 2019 | Workshop on Statistics for Linguistics | University of Manitoba |
| Differences In Vowel-glide Production Between L1 And L2 Speakers Of Hul’q’umi’num’ (with Sonya Bird) | International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne | |
| Ethnolinguistic Differentiation and the Canadian Shift (with Nicole Rosen and Lanlan Li) | International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne | |
| Acoustic Phonetics and Language Revitalization in the Hul’q’umi’num’ Community (with Sonya Bird) | Prairie Workshop on Languages and Linguistics V, University of Winnipeg | |
| 2018 | Best practices in automatic vowel production analysis | Sociolinguistics Symposium 22, University of Auckland |
| Joining the Western Region: Sociophonetic Shift in Victoria (with Rebecca Roeder and Alex D’Arcy) | Journal of English Linguistics | |
| An Acoustic Study of Canadian Raising in Three Dialects of North American English | Doctoral dissertation, the University of Victoria | |
| 2017 | Canadian Raising or Canadian Shortening? Comparing and contrasting dynamic models of vowel duration | Workshop on Dynamic Modeling in Phonetics & Phonology, University of Chicago |
| 2016 | Urban youth in Rio de Janeiro: Contemporary linguistic variation in Brazilian Portuguese (with Christiani Thompson) | New Ways of Analyzing Variation 45, Simon Fraser University |
| Yod variation in Victoria, B.C.: An acoustic-centred approach | American Dialect Society, Washington DC | |
| 2015 | Simultaneous Innovation & Conservation: Unpacking Victoria’s Vowels (with Rebecca Roeder and Alex D’Arcy) | New Ways of Analyzing Variation 44, University of Toronto |
| There’s a New Ethnolect in Town: Vowel Patterning of Filipino English in Winnipeg (with Nicole Rosen and Lanlan Li) | New Ways of Analyzing Variation 44, University of Toronto | |
| City, province or region: What do the vowels of Victoria tell us? (with Rebecca Roeder and Alex D’Arcy) | American Dialect Society, Portland OR | |
| Acoustic Phonetics Lab Manual (with Sonya Bird, Qian Wang and Allison Benner) | Course textbook, University of Victoria | |
| 2014 | The Prosodic Structure of Canadian Raising | Proceedings of the Canadian Linguistic Association |
| The Prosodic Structure of Canadian Raising | Canadian Linguistic Association, Brock University | |
| Analyzing complex vowel articulations from acoustic data | Cascadia Workshop in Sociolinguistics, University of Victoria | |
| Finding our voice: A primer on the Manitoba dialect (interview) | David Sanderson: The Winnipeg Free Press | |
| 2010 | Canadian Raising in Manitoba: Acoustic Effects of Articulatory Phasing and Lexical Frequency | Master’s thesis, University of Manitoba |
Teaching and work experience
In addition to positions which I have held, individual academic courses which I have taught are listed below:
| Year | Position or Course Title | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2023– | Adjunct Professor of Linguistics | University of Victoria |
| 2022– | Research Officer | Government of British Columbia |
| 2022 | Phonetics and Phonology LING-2001/ANTH-2401/ENGL-2803 | University of Winnipeg |
| 2022 | Academic Writing: Multidisciplinary RHET-1105 | University of Winnipeg |
| 2022 | Academic Writing: Humanities RHET-1101 | University of Winnipeg |
| 2019–2021 | SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship | University of Manitoba |
| 2021 | Academic Writing: Multidisciplinary RHET-1105 | University of Winnipeg |
| 2021 | Topics in Linguistics: Practical Statistics for Linguistics LING 4920/7920 | University of Manitoba |
| 2021 | Child Language Development LING/PSYC 3860 | University of Manitoba |
| 2021 | Topics in Linguistics: Hul’q’umi’num’ Language Acquisition LING 480 | Simon Fraser University |
| 2021 | Phonetics and Phonology LING-2001/ANTH-2401/ENGL-2803 | University of Winnipeg |
| 2020 | Language Acquisition / Child Language Development LING/PSYC 3860 | University of Manitoba |
| 2018–2019 | Research Assistant, Languages in the Prairies Project | University of Manitoba |
| 2019 | Language and the Media LING 1620 | University of Manitoba |
| 2019 | Phonetics and Phonology LING-2001/ANTH-2401/ENGL-2803 | University of Winnipeg |
| 2013–2017 | Research Assistant, Victoria English Project | University of Victoria |
| 2014–2016 | Linguistic Consultant | GSD/Google |
| 2015 | Language Acquisition / Child Language Development LING/PSYC 3860 | University of Manitoba |
| 2014 | Acoustic Phonetics LING 380 (Lab Instructor) | University of Victoria |
| 2014 | Cognitive Neuroscience of Linguistics LING 370C (Teaching Assistant) | University of Victoria |
| 2013 | Phonetics and Phonology LING-2001/ANTH-2401/ENGL-2803 | University of Winnipeg |
| 2012 | Phonetics and Phonology LING-2001/ANTH-2401/ENGL-2803 | University of Winnipeg |
| 2011 | Introduction to Linguistics LING-1001 | University of Winnipeg |
| 2008–2009 | Freelance Writer | Technologies for Learning Group |
| 2007 | General Phonetics LING 138 (Teaching Assistant) | University of Manitoba |
| 2006 | Language and Gender LING 142 (Teaching Assistant) | University of Manitoba |
| 2001–2002 | English (EFL) Teacher | Oh Sungsik English Club |
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