Darin Flynn

Darin Flynn

@phono-logical.bsky.social

assoc. prof. linguistics @ucalgary.bsky.social

430 followers239 following4K posts

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

Grading can be boring, but I’m really enjoying my students’ haikus, e.g.: ㅤ Eating cheese Amidst my friends Saddened cow ㅤ /iₘₘtɪₘŋ ʧiₘₘz/ /əₘmɪₘdₘst maₘɪₘ fɹɛₘnₘz/ /sæₘdₘəₘnd kaₘʊₘ/

Darin Flynn@phono-logical.bsky.social

Just me, maybe, but I think haiku translations should use the 5–7–5 mora pattern and typical poetic devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, etc.):

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

Bright forest Glowing green moss Sky above ㅤ /bɹaₘɪₘt fɔₘɹₘəₘst/ /ɡloₘʊₘɪₘŋ ɡɹiₘₘn mɑₘsₘ/ /skaₘɪₘ əₘbʌₘvₘ/

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

Too funny: voiceless obstruents favoured after nasals; voiced obstruents favoured after voiceless obstruents; e.g.

Darin Flynn@phono-logical.bsky.social

“Lexicon against naturalness: Unnatural gradient phonotactic restrictions in Tarma Quechua” by Gašper Beguš, Aleksei Nazarov, Anna Björklund and Blas Puente Baldoceda (Oct. ’26) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

Btw, anyone with a friend named Todd should definitely refer to his kid as the Toddler

Darin Flynn@phono-logical.bsky.social

Question: does anyone share my sense that ‘toddler’ has a suffix -ler? (I don’t trust my metalinguistic intuitions here; -ler was on my mind earlier this year, so I’m biased.)

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

Question: does anyone share my sense that ‘toddler’ has a suffix -ler? (I don’t trust my metalinguistic intuitions here; -ler was on my mind earlier this year, so I’m biased.)

Darin Flynn@phono-logical.bsky.social

If no one else has, I declare ‑ler to be an English suffix. It’s not in Wikipedia’s enormous list en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Categor... nor even in Bauer’s (2014) “Rare, obscure and marginal affixes in English” journals.openedition.org/lexis/304 but it was in ‘jizzler’, ‘fuckler’, etc.—and now ‘rizzler’

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

Hm, how are we meant to interpret this when there are three authors?

Darin Flynn@phono-logical.bsky.social

Fun topic: “Defining cognate similarity in psycholinguistics: a phonological perspective” by Isabella Fritz, Joshua Booth and Aditi Lahiri (Oct. ’26) joshuabooth.com/FRITZ_BOOTH_...

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

Misiorowski, who just set a World Series speed record, is pronounced [ˌmɪzəˈɹ̠ʷaʊski] by Americans and Canadians alike, which shows that Canadian Raising is blocked before -ski. Compare ‘jousting’, which is pronounced [ˈd̥ʒaʊstɪŋ] by Americans but as [ˈd̥ʒəustɪŋ] by Canadians, due to Canadian Raising

Darin Flynn reposted

Dahlem Center for Linguistics
@dclberlin.bsky.social

#OTD 130 years ago, Roman Jakobson (1896–1982) was born 🎂 A key figure in the Moscow and Prague Linguistic Circles and a zaum poet, he is known for his theory of markedness, model of the six functions of language, and his role in introducing the term “structuralism”. #LinguisticBirthdays #Histlx

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

Go Vincent!

UofC Linguistics@ucalgaryling.bsky.social

Congratulations to PhD candidate Vincent Nwosu on his latest publication: “The owl never cries in vain: an acoustic study of vocal expressions in mbem chants” in Frontiers in Communication www.frontiersin.org/journals/com...

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

This is cool: “A number of verb suffixes have allomorphy in which their initial consonant is alveolar after i and velar otherwise.”

Darin Flynn@phono-logical.bsky.social

“A grammatical description of Hurukui, with special focus on syntactic gradience” by Wesley Kuhron Jones (Sep. ’26) scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/api/c...

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Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

“Interindividual vocal tract diversity influences the phonetic diversification of spoken languages” by Steven Moran, Tiena Danner, Marcia S. Ponce de León and Christoph P. E. Zollikofer (October. ’26) journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org

Human vocal tracts vary extensively between individuals, but how does this translate into sound diversity between speakers and languages? This study uses vocal tract imaging to develop a biocultural model of phonetic #evolution. 🧪 #AcademicSky #phonetics plos.io/3VWIKBt

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

“A comparative analysis of body-part terminology in Na-Dene and Yeniseian languages” by Shawn Khefets (Oct. ’26) opus.uleth.ca/server/api/c... This thesis won’t sway Lyle Campbell, say, but it’s an impressive accomplishment for an MA student at a small, primarily undergrad university in Alberta!

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

‘giocoso’ /ʤoʊˈkoʊsoʊ/ — great word! Other o-ful words tend to have at least one /ə/, e.g. ‘komodo’ /kəˈmoʊdoʊ/, Kosovo /ˈkoʊsəˌvoʊ/, etc.

Darin Flynn
@phono-logical.bsky.social

‘Haudenosaunee’ came up during a Brazilian student’s oral presentation a few days ago. She stopped, turned to me, and asked how to say it. It has several pronunciations: /ˌhɑdənoʊˈʃoʊni/, /ˌhoʊdənoʊˈʃoʊni/, and /hoʊˌdiːnəˈʃɑni/. But *I* instinctively, confidently and loudly responded /ˌhɑdənəˈsɑni/.