Sociolinguistics of less commonly studied languages, language variation and change, dialects, language and identity, tone, linguistic contact, sociophonetics, sociotonetics, clan-based societies (exogamy, dialect contact), Sui (China) and other Tai-Kadai languages, Hmong communities in the U.S., computational modeling of language variation and change
Recent Publications
Books
With Dennis Preston, eds. 2009: Variation in indigenous minority languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins (Impact series). Link to book information
Articles
2012: One size fits all? Dialectometry in a small clan-based indigenous society. Language Variation and Change 24(2): 247-278. Link to abstract/download article
2012: With Thomas Leddy-Cecere and Kenneth Baclawski. Farewell to the founders: Major dialect changes along the East-West New England border. American Speech 87(2):126-69. Link to abstract/download article
2012: With Jonathan P. Evans. The influence of Mandarin Chinese on minority languages in rural southwest China: A sociolinguistic study of tones in contact. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 215:79-100. Link to abstract/download article
2011: A 50-year comparison of regional dialect variation in the Sui language. Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 4(2):120-43.
2010: Gender, generations, and nations: An experiment in Hmong American discourse and sociophonetics. Language and Communication 30(4):285-96. Link to abstract/download article
2010: With Lindsay Whaley. The sustainability of languages. International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability 6(3):111-22
2010: The role of marriage in linguistic contact and variation: Two Hmong dialects in Texas. Journal of Sociolinguistics 14(1):89-115. Link to abstract/download article
2009: "Eating the food of our place": Socio-linguistic loyalties in multi-dialectal Sui villages. Language in Society 38(3):287-309. Link to abstract/download article
2009: Clan as a sociolinguistic variable. In James Stanford & Dennis Preston (eds.), Variation in indigenous minority languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. Link to abstract
2009: With Dennis Preston. The lure of a distant horizon: Variation in indigenous minority languages. In James Stanford & Dennis Preston (eds.), Variation in indigenous minority languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins
2008: Child dialect acquisition: New perspectives on parent/peer influence. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(5):567-96. Link to abstract/download article
Assistant Professor, Ph.D. (Linguistics)