Associate Professor
Linguistics
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Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics York University Ross S546A 4700 Keele Street Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 |
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| (416) 736-2100 x33791 | |
| chandann@yorku.ca |
I am an Associate Professor of Lingusitics in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics at York University. I also direct the Speech and Psycholinguistics Lab, where I work on projects with undergrads and graduate students from Linguistics, Psychology, and Cognitive Science.
I'm interested in lots of aspects of speech, but mostly how infants and adults perceive speech, how our perception of speech interacts with our language, and how speech perception and acoustic phonetics contribute to historical sound change (mostly in Dravidian).
I started my career working on the problem of how our developing perception of speech acoustics (in infancy) is reflected in larger typological patterns observed in sound systems. I've also worked on how caregivers' speech (in languages like Sri Lankan Tamil and Tagalog) to infants changes as infants develop. Another research program addresses how our perception of speech interacts with our lexicon.
I'm currently starting a new SSHRC-funded proj on lexical access in bilinguals. I'm also working on perceptual and phonological drivers of debuccalization in the history of Kannada (ಪ>ಹ). I've also recently collaborated on a project aimed at understanding the biomechanics and acoustics of Sygyt style of Tuvan throat singing.
I'm Californian (East Bay) and went to Cal Berkeley ('96, Sanskrit) then the Univ. of Michigan ('06, Linguistics). I've always played music.
Recent work
- An acoustic-perceptual explanation for debuccalization in 10th century Kannada (LSA 2025 talk)
- Speaking rate effects on burst amplitude in Tamil and English
- An acoustic perspective on 45 years of infant speech perception I: Consonants II: Vowels
- Fragile phonetic contrasts in longitudinal infant-directed speech: Implications for infant speech perception
New Projs
- Sociolinguistics of retroflex liquid produciton and perception in heritage Tamil speakers (with Kamala Muthukumarasamy, PhD student at Carleton Linguistics)
- Lexical access in Uruguayan Spanish/Portuguese bilinuguals (SSHRC-funded, with Vanina Machado, postdoc)
- Acoustic-perceptual cues to coda voicing in English
- The multiple sound systems of children of immigrants: How we talk to our parents (York MRG-funded)
Grad students
- Kostia Pho (PhD candidate): Bilingual lexical access (Mandarin/French-English), cognate effect, and pupil dilation
- QingXiao Cui (PhD Yr2): Acoustic-phonetics of Heritage Mandarin speakers in the GTA
Teaching/Discussion Group/Other
- This Fall 2024 semester I'm teaching LING2200 (Introduction to Speech and Language Sciences), which is the intro capstone course for our new Specialized Honors BA in Speech and Language Sciences.
- Along with colleagues Emily Elfner, Thomas Kettig, and Liisa Duncan, I convene the Phonophony group, which meets at least once a month to discuss phonology, phonetics, our work, your work(!)
- Lastly, I receive A LOT of requests for letters of recommendation. I'm usually happy to oblige, but only if you've taken at least two of my courses and have received good grades in them. If you want a strong letter I have to know you and your work.