Welcome to my site!
Hello!
I am a third year PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. My research interests are primarily in sociophonetics, heritage languages, and community-based approaches to language reclamation.
My ongoing work centers around documenting variation in vowels in language revitalization contexts, namely with the languages Yiddish, Labrador Inuttitut, and Itza’. This research focuses on the interaction between vowel quantity and quality across different social and linguistic contexts. I additionally participate in theoretical and documentary work on Mauritian Creole, the dominant language of Mauritius, ʔayʔaǰuθəm, a Salish language spoken in British Columbia, Woleaian, an Austronesian language spoken in Yap State, Micronesia, and Korean, both in terms of regional variation in the peninsula and heritage variation in the diaspora.
Lastly, I am interested the role of technology in contributing to domains of language use and learning, particularly for diaspora populations. I focus on how transcription using the software ELAN can support language learning and the creation of materials, such as online talking dictionaries, to promote and sustain language use.
Laura S. Griffin 