About me
Linguist, Macquarie University
I primarily work on the description and documentation of Australian languages, especially Warlmanpa and (more recently) Warumungu. These languages are presently spoken in/around Tennant Creek ("Jurnkkurakurr"), in the Northern Territory. I completed my PhD in Linguistics at the University of Queensland in 2021, and was an Associate Lecturer at The University of Western Australia in 2022. I've been at Macquarie University since 2023. You can hear some Warlmanpa words here and Warumungu words here; and both languages have a Plants and Animals book you can purchase from Papulu-Appar Kari Aboriginal Corporation.
Recent publications
Central vowels in Kamu and Larrakia
With Mark Harvey, Michael Proctor, and Robert Mailhammer
An acoustic analysis of vowels in Kamu and Larrakia, focusing on a non-peripheral vowel which has proved difficult to categorise. These results enhance our understanding of the structure and properties of higher cardinality vowel systems in Australian languages, and the typology of six-vowel systems more generally.
Stop Oppositions in Warumungu: A Distributional and Acoustic Analysis
With Michael Proctor, Jane Simpson, Mark Harvey, Robert Mailhammer, and Harriet Carpenter
An acoustic analysis of stops in Warumungu, a Pama-Nyungan language with a reported stop distinction. We demonstrate that the primary phonetic distinction is duration; voicing distinctions are predictable from duration.
The grammatical realisation of apprehensional functions in Ngumpin-Yapa languages (Australia)
With Tom Ennever and David Osgarby
A typological analysis of how apprehension is morphosyntactically expressed in Ngumpin-Yapa languages.
