This site contains information on my research & work as a linguist and data scientist.

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	A phonetic case study of Tŝilhqot’in /z/ and /z^ʕ/ - preprint (with Sonya Bird)	Journal of the International Phonetic Association (open access)
	Cotopaxi Media Lengua vowels: A preliminary analysis (with Jesse Stewart)	International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Prague
	Vowel raising in Cotopaxi Quichuan languages (with Jesse Stewart)	International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Prague
2022	Prevelar vowel raising and merger in Manitoba English	Journal of English Linguistics (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

Works in progress:

Form, function, and reduction: Phonetic erosion in the grammaticalization of Brazilian Portuguese tipo (with Christiani Thompson)
“Chilcotin flattening” revisited: A phonetic investigation of Tsilhqot’in retraction effects (with Sonya Bird)
Quotative constructions in spoken vernacular Brazilian Portuguese (with Christiani Thompson)
Canadian Shift amidst demographic shift: Ethnolinguistic effects in Western Canadian English vowels (with Nicole Rosen and Lanlan Li)

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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Sky Onosson

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About Me

Research projects

Research output

Teaching and work experience