Research interests

General

• Phonetics
• Sociophonetics
• Laboratory Phonology
• Sociolinguistics
• Historical linguistics

Specific

• phonological variation and change (especially in the Glasgow accent, and English more generally (SPADE)
• articulatory sociolinguistics (Seeing Speech, Dynamic Dialects, STAR)
• ethnicity, bilingualism and language variation
• influence of the broadcast media on language change
• sound change over time in Glaswegian (Sounds of the City)
• variation in children's speech (VarICS)
• the sociolinguistics of Human Robot Interaction (HRI)

Biography

My first degree was in Classics at University College London, where I also studied Sanskrit and Comparative Philology with Paddy Considine. After working in publishing (Pergamon Press; Oxford University Press, OUP), I went to Oxford University and took the MPhil in Comparative Philology and General Linguistics (1991), and then a DPhil (1996) in historical phonology. My work was the first to apply contemporary phonetic theory to a set of sound changes reconstructed from Proto-Indo-European into the ancient languages of Italy (Phonetics and Philology, OUP 2004). During my MPhil, I was introduced to Experimental Phonetics and Sociolinguistics, especially Language Variation and Change, and I shifted my research focus to observing sound change in progress and understanding how sounds convey and reflect social meaning. This perspective was broadened by my work as an ESRC Research Fellow on a psycholinguistic research project on bilingualism and literacy acquisition in young Panjabi-English speaking-children, at the School of Education at the University of Birmingham (1996).

In 1997 I moved to north to Glasgow, where - with Mike MacMahon, Rachel Smith, and our postdocs and research students - I established the lively research group at the Glasgow University Laboratory of Phonetics (GULP).  A highlight for us all was hosting the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, ICPhS 2015, at the SECC, in Glasgow (10-14 August 2015), with our Scottish phonetics colleagues from the Universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, which encouraged over a thousand of the world's phoneticians to come to Scotland for a stimulating and enjoyable conference.

My research considers the many relationships between speech and society, including:

• sound change: My ongoing collaborative project, Speech Across Dialects of English (SPADE) (funded 2017-2021), exploits technological advances to expand the scope to phonetic variation and change in Old and New World English over the 20th century, with colleagues Morgan Sonderegger (McGill), Jeff Mielke, Erik Thomas, Robin Dodsworth, Paul Fyfe (North Carolina State), Tyler Kendall (Oregon), and Joe Fruehwald (Edinburgh). James Tanner is now a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at Glasgow (2023-26), exploiting the SPADE data to look at variability across dialects and speakers. Before that, I managed three exernally-funded projects on sound change, focussing on Glaswegian vernacular, moving from an apparent-time, variationist sociolinguistic study, Accent Change in Glaswegian (1999), to my current research on real-time change over the course of the 20th century (How stable is the standard? Carnegie Trust, 2015; Sounds of the City Leverhulme Trust, 2011-14). I am fortunate to collaborate with many colleagues on my work on sound change, including: Brian Jose (Indiana State University), Ludger Evers (Glasgow: Mathematics and Statistics), Rachel Macdonald (Glasgow), Robert Lennon (Glasgow), Teresa Neocleous (Glasgow: Mathematics and Statistics), Tamara Rathcke (Kent), Claire Timmins (Strathclyde), Duncan Robertson (York, UK), Morgan Sonderegger (McGill), Marton Soskuthy (York, UK).  An extension of this work has been to consider aspects of Scottish English in the input of early New Zealand English, with Lynn Clark, Jen Hay, and Kevin Watson (Christ Church, NZ).
• influence of the broadcast media on language change: This research strand developed from my first Glasgow project in 1999, and led to my ESRC-funded project,Is television a contributory factor in accent change in adolescents? (2002-5), which was the first systematic investigation of the impact of watching TV on speech.  I continue to collaborate with Claire Timmins (Strathclyde) and Ichiro Ota (Kagoshima) on this research. Understanding how speakers parse speech without the possibility of interaction led to the collaborative PhD project carried out by Vijay Solanki, Brains in Dialogue, with Alessandro Vinciarelli, Rachel Smith, Pascal Belin and Guillaume Rousselet. More recently, I am now collaborating with Mary Ellen Foster, Gabriele Skanze (Furhat Robotics) and Shauli Ashkenazi on the sociolinguistics of Human Robot Interaction (HRI).
• articulatory sociolinguistics: Another direction from the 1999 project was to investigate the articulatory nature of sociolinguistic variation and change using Ultrasound Tongue Imaging. This research, carried out with colleagues Jim Scobbie and Eleanor Lawson (Queen Margaret University Edinburgh), began with Looking variation and change in the mouth: developing the sociolinguistic potential of Ultrasound Tongue Imaging (ESRC, 2007-9), then Seeing the links in the speaker-hearer chain (ESRC, 2011-14), and now Changes in shape, space and time: the impact of position on the spatiotemporal and configurational articulatory properties of liquid consonants (ESRC, 2016-19). This work has also motvated collaborative projects to develop open-access online resources with audio-visual films showing speech production in action: Seeing Speech, Dynamic Dialects (AHRC 2014-15; Carnegie Trust, 2011-13). I am now working with Eleanor Lawson and Joanne Cleland (Strathclyde University), to build, the Speech Therapy Animation and imaging Resource (STAR), a pair of sister resources to Seeing Speech, called on, one for training Speech and Language Therapists, and the other for use in clinic/at home. 
• sociophonetics: I have also carried out research projects on different aspects of social accents, including: Glasgow Asian ('Glaswasian'), spoken by Panjabi-heritage Glaswegians (with Farhana Alam, Glasgow; Claire Timmins, Strathclyde), ejectives in Scottish English (with Owen McCarthy, Notre Dame High School) and the 'Glasgow Uni' accent (with Andrew MacFarlane, formerly York, UK). I am working on the sociophonetics of Scottish children, from the large normative child speech data collection which is being collected for the Variability in Child Speech (VariCS) project, led by colleagues Anja Kuschmann and Joanne Cleland at Strathclyde. 

Academic positions

• 2013-: Professor of Phonetics and Sociolinguistics, University of Glasgow
• 1998-: (co-)Director, Glasgow University Laboratory of Phonetics (GULP)
• 2005-13: Reader in English Language, University of Glasgow
• 1997-2005: Lecturer in English Language, University of Glasgow
• 1996: ESRC Research Fellow, School of Education, University of Birmingham (Phonological processing and literacy skills in bilingual/biliterate children; Principal Investigator: D.M.Martin)

Education

• 1983-6: University College London: First Class B.A. Honours degree in Classics
• 1989-91: M.Phil in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology, Christ Church, Oxford (Supervisor: Anna Morpurgo Davies, Somerville College; British Academy, 1989-91)
• 1991-6: D.Phil. in Historical Phonology The development of the Indo-European voiced aspirates in Italic: A philological and phonetic assessment (Supervisors: J. H. W. Penney, Wolfson College, John Coleman, Director of Phonetics Laboratory, Oxford University; British Academy, 1991-2)
  • 1991-2: Christ Church College
  • 1992: Fieldwork in Italy, funded by the British School at Rome
  • 1993-6: Somerville College

Prizes/Scholarships

• University College London
  • 1984: Webster Prize for Greek
  • 1985: Long Prize for Greek
  • 1986: Postgate Prize for Classical Philology
• University of Oxford
  • 1992-3: Levick Sisters' Senior Scholarship in Philology, Somerville College

Previous Employment (non-academic)

• 1991-4: Oxford University Press: English Phonetics Editor, Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary
• 1987-9: Oxford University Press: Assistant Editor, Classics and Theology, Arts and Reference
• 1987:  Pergamon Press: Administrative Assistant, Sales and Marketing (Books)

Career Breaks

• I have taken two six-month periods of maternity leave, in 1999 and in 2001-2. In 2016 I had a reduced workload in order to care for my younger son with a chronic health condition. In 2023 I developed Long Covid and took a 3-month leave of absence from work. I am currently on a phased return to work with Long Covid.

List by: Type | Date

• 2023-26: British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. Tracking talker dynamics within and across English dialects. Mentor for James Tanner. With Morgan Sonderegger, McGill University. PF21/210105. £269,212.

• 2022-2023: Swiss National Science Foundation. Comment notre voix trahit notre identite. Postdoc.Mobility. Mentor for Melanie Lancien. With Martine Adda-Decker, Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie (LPP), Paris. P500PH_211162. CHF 105,600.
  • Melanie is now Lecturer at Nancy, University of Lorraine. 

• 2022-2025: Variability in Child Speech (VariCS). Principal applicant: A. Kuschmann; co-applicant: J. Cleland; co-applicant: J. Stuart-Smith. RA Mridhula Murali, ES/W003244/1. £655,808 FEC.

• 2021-2024: Speech Therapy Animation and imaging Resource (STAR). Principal applicant: E. Lawson; co-applicant: J. Cleland; co-applicant: J. Stuart-Smith. ES/V012401/1. £242,037 FEC.

• 2017-2020: Speech Across Dialects of English (SPADE). J. Stuart-Smith (Overall PI), CIs: J. Fruehwald; M. Sonderegger (Canada); US: J. Mielke, E. Thomas, R. Dodsworth, T. Kendall, P. Fyfe (US). ~ £800k FEC/or equivalent.
  • James Tanner, SPADE PhD, now holds a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship at Glasgow (2023-26)
  • Rachel Macdonald, SPADE project manager/RA now works as a Research Coordinator for College of Arts, Glasgow

• 2016-19: Economic and Social Research Council: Changes in shape, space and time: the impact of position on the spatiotemporal and configurational articulatory properties of liquid consonants.  Principal applicant: E. Lawson; co-applicant: J. Scobbie; co-applicant: J. Stuart-Smith. ES/N008189/1. £197,099 FEC.
  
  
• 2015: Carnegie Trust Research Incentive Grant: How stable is the standard? Principal Applicant: J.Stuart-Smith. £7,421.16
  
  
• 2014-15: Arts and Humanities Research Council: Dynamic Dialects: Integrating articulatory video to reveal the complexity of speech. Principal applicant: J. Stuart-Smith, co-applicants J. Scobbie, D. Beavan, G. Leplatre. AH/L010380/1. Research Fellows: S. Nakai, then E. Lawson. £232,382 FEC.
  • This project developed the following two web resources: Seeing Speech, Dynamic Dialects, and a YouTube channel: Articulatory IPA.
  • Eleanor Lawson is a Chancellor's Fellow in Speecn and Language Therapy at Strathclyde University

• 2011-14: Leverhulme Trust: Fine phonetic variation and sound change: A real-time study of Glaswegian (Sounds of the City). Principal applicant: J. Stuart-Smith, co-applicant. B. Torsney, then Ludger Evers and Tereza Neocleous [Mathematics and Statistics]; co-applicant: C. Timmins. Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant: RPG-142. Research Fellows: T. Rathcke, then R. Macdonald; B. Jose. £236,682.
  • This project has established an open-access web resource for teachers, pupils, students and the general public interested in learning about sound change
  • Our research findings have been featured in The Conversation and then The Guardian.
  • Tamara Rathcke is now Professor at the University of Konstanz.
  • Brian Jose now has a permanent Associate Professorship at Indiana State University.
     
• 2011-14: Economic and Social Research Council: Seeing the links in the speaker-hearer chain: An investigation of the transmission of articulatory variation using Ultrasound Tongue Imaging. RES-062-23-3246.Principal applicant: J. Scobbie, co-applicant: J. Stuart-Smith, co-applicant: E. Lawson. £227,536 FEC.
  
  
• 2011-13: Carnegie Trust: An online Ultrasound Tongue Imaging resource for Phonetics, Linguistics, and Speech Therapy teaching at Scottish Universities. Principal applicant: J. Stuart-Smith, co-applicants: J. Scobbie, A.Turk, M. Durham, C. Timmins, D. Beavan. RA: Eleanor Lawson. Carnegie Trust Larger Grant, £38,682.
  
  • This project laid the groundwork for the web resources Seeing Speech, Dynamic Dialects, and STAR.
    
    
• 2012: Encompass (First Step Award), Glasgow University Innovations Fund: April-September 2011: Effectiveness of Micro-Phonics Pronunciation Coach software. Principal applicant: J Stuart-Smith, co-applicant: R. Smith.
  
  
• 2011: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science: JSPS Invitation Fellowship Program for Research in Japan (Short-Term), Invitation from: Ichiro Ota (Kagoshima University). ID No. S-11114.¥456,000 + airfare (approx £4000).
  
  
• 2011: First Step Award, Glasgow University Innovations Fund: April-September 2011: Micro-Phonics – a computer-aided literacy tool. Principal applicant: J Stuart-Smith, co-applicant: R. Smith.

• 2008: British Academy: Investigating ethnic accents: an acoustic analysis of Glasgow Asian. Principal applicant: J. Stuart-Smith; Research Assistants: C. Timmins, F. Alam £5,470.
  
  
• 2009-11: Mentor to ESRC First Grant held by Rachel Smith: Timing in Accents of English

• 2007-9: Economic and Social Research Council: Looking variation and change in the mouth: developing the sociolinguistic potential of Ultrasound Tongue Imaging. RES-000-22-2032. Principal applicant: J. Scobbie, co-applicant: J. Stuart-Smith, Research fellow: E. Lawson £100,000 FEC: evaluation: Outstanding.
  
  
• 2006: Royal Society of Edinburgh: Caledonian Research Fellowship/Royal Society of Edinburgh Visiting Scholars Fellowship: research visit to Hannover FreieUniversitaet, September – December 2006: £3600.
  
  
• 2004-7: Arts and Humanities Research Board (Resource Enhancement Scheme): ‘Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech (SCOTS). APN17387. Principal applicant: J. Corbett, co-applicant: J. Stuart-Smith; co-applicant: C. Kay. £309,944 FEC.
  
  
• 2004: John Robertson Bequest, University of Glasgow: Empirical evidence for gendered speech production: /s/ in Glaswegian. £1,500.
  
  
• 2002-5: Economic and Social Research Council: Is TV a factor in accent change in adolescents. R000239757. Principal applicant: J. Stuart-Smith; ESRC research fellow: C. Timmins. £123,760.15: evaluation: Outstanding.
  
  • Claire Timmins now has a Lectureship at the University of Strathclyde
    
    
• 2002 (awarded 2001, delayed by maternity leave): Arts and Humanities Research Board: Research Leave Grant: Accent change in Glaswegian. £7,658.
  
  
• 1999: Leverhulme Trust: Accent change in Glaswegian: A sociophonetic investigation (F/179/AX). Principal applicant: J. Stuart-Smith; co-applicant: F. Tweedie; Research Assistant: C. Timmins. £19,140.
  
  
• 1996: British Academy: Overseas Conference Grant to attend SALA 18 in New Delhi. £672.

I supervise postgraduate students at doctoral and masters levels in phonetics, sociophonetics, and sociolinguistics, and currently have 95% completion rate for my PhD students (19/20 projects). I welcome applications from students keen to work in these areas. I am currently a member of the supervisory team for the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Socially Intelligent Artificial Agents (SOCIAL). Postgraduate students working with me enjoy excellent facilities as members of our lively and friendly Glasgow University Laboratory of Phonetics, which offers many opportunities for working with colleagues in English Language & Linguistics, and University of Glasgow more generally, and for meeting visiting scholars and speakers. My former graduate students have found diverse employment, including in academic research and teaching, research development, data science, and professional education.

Current PhD students

• Juliusz Cecelewski (2023-), Sourbonne Nouvelle/LPP, Paris (with Cedric Gendrot Marzena Zygis, ZAS).
• Shaul Ashkenazi (2022-), Evaluating and enhancing Human-Robot Interaction for multiple diverse users in real-world contexts, UKRI SOCIAL CDT (joint with Mary Ellen Foster, Computing Science, Gabriele Skanze, Furhat Robotics) 
• Lucy Jackson (2022-). Examining media effects on implicit sociolinguistic cognition. +3 AHRC. (with Rachel Smith).  
• Ryan Shaw-Hawkins (2022-). Gender beyond the binary: A socio-articulatory study of laterals in nonbinary speakers. +3 ESRC. (with Jim Scobbie, QMU, and Christian Ilbury, Edinburgh).  
• Nate Lindgren (2021-). Isolation, integration, and variation: a sociophonetic study on the role of religion in Sikh and Muslim Glaswegian. 1+3 ESRC. (with Jennifer Smith and Saeko Yazaki)
• Carolina Baglioni (2019-). Motivation in Adult language learning in Scotland: Translating motivated behaviour into Italian teaching practice. (with Angela Gayton)
• Margie Ferguson (2018-), Structured variation in the speech of 3 year old children in a “relic” dialect area of south west Scotland (with Jennifer Smith)

Completed PhD students

• Edward Marshall (2019-23), Do choirs have accents? AHRC (joint with John Butt [Music], and Timothy Dean [Royal Conservatoire])
• Jo Pearce (2018-23), Voice quality in contemporary Scotland: perception, gender, & identity, ESRC 1+3 (with Clara Cohen, Felix Schaeffler, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh)
• Divyanshi Shaktawat (2019-23). Bilingualism and Glaswasian identity. College of Arts Scholarship (with Clara Cohen).
• Ebtehal Asiry (2017-22), Phonological variation in the speech of Iraqi Arabs in two UK cities: London and Glasgow, Saudi Arabian Government (with Jennifer Smith)
• Nadiya Alghamdi (2021-22), Variation in Second Language Speech: A sociolinguistic study of adult Pakistanis living in Bradford. (acted as supervisor for final year of PhD, with Orhan Elmaz, St Andrews). 
• Florent Chevalier (2017-2021), De l’accommodation linguistique au changement phonétique: variabilité idiolectale et variation dialectale dans l’anglais parlé à Glasgow (XXe) (with Sylvie Hanote, University of Poitiers). Florent is now a Lecturer at Nantes University. 
• James Tanner (2018-2020), Structured dialectal and speaker variability in the segmental realisation of English connected speech (joint with Morgan Sonderegger, McGill University, Canada). James is now a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Glasgow University.
• Julia Moreno (2016-20), 'Tut-tut' or 'Tsk tsk'? A sociophonetic study of clicks in Glasgow (with Rachel Smith)
• Fabienne Westerberg (2015-20), An articulatory and acoustic study of Viby-i, ESRC (joint with Eleanor Lawson/Jim Scobbie, QMU)
• Craig Alexander (2014-18), Recovering the dynamics of talk: tracking temporal dependence in multilevel models for speech. Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith Scholarship Scheme (joint with Ludger Evers and Tereza Neocleous [Mathematics and Statistics]). Craig is now a Lecturer in Statistics at the University of Glasgow.
• Ewa Wanat (2014-18), Rhythm Matters: The role of rhythm in a computer assisted learning tool (Micro-phonics), AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award (joint with Rachel Smith).
• Robert Lennon (2013-17) , The effect of experience in cross-dialect perception: parsing /r/ in Glaswegian, ESRC (joint with Rachel Smith). Robert is now a Senior Research Associate in Sociophonetics at Lancaster University.
• Vijay Solanki (2012-17), Brains in dialogue: Cerebral processing of speech in conversation, Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith Scholarship Scheme (lead with Rachel Smith, Guillaume Rousselet [Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience], Alessandro Vinciarelli [Computing Science]). Vijay is now a Data specialist in Alexa Machine Learning, Amazon (Boston, Massachusetts)
• Ninik Poedjianto (2000-15), Production and perception of foreign accent (awarded pending corrections, 2 March 2016)
• Farhana Alam (2007-15), Language, identity and ethnicity in Asian girls in Glasgow, ESRC. (Very sadly, Farhana died of breast cancer on 24 November 2017, aged 36.)
• Duncan Robertson (2011-15), Implicit sociolingustic cognition, ESRC (lead with Rachel Smith, Christoph Scheepers [Psychology]). Duncan worked as a postdoc on the TUULS project at the University of York.
• Claire Nance (2009-2013), Transmission of Scottish Gaelic in the modern world, Lord Kelvin / Adam Smith Scholarship Scheme (joint with Robby O’Maolalaigh [Celtic and Scottish Gaelic], Andrew Smith [Sociology]). Claire is now Professor of Phonetics at the University of Lancaster.
• Cassie Smith-Christmas (2008-12), Code-switching and language maintenance in a Gaelic-speaking family in Skye (with Robby O’Maolalaigh [Celtic and Scottish Gaelic). Cassie is now Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Galway, having been a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow, at Galway, andvl a researcher at the University of the Highlands and Islands.
• Ellen Bramwell (2006-2012), Naming in Society: A cross-cultural study of five communities in Scotland, ESRC. Ellen completed her second postdoc on the Metaphor in the Curriculum project at the University of Glasgow, and is now an Affiliate Researcher at Glasgow, and a Senior Research & Dissemination Officer at the Scottish Qualifications Agency (SQA).
• Robert Lawson (2005-9), Sociolinguistic constructions of identity among adolescent males in Glasgow, ESRC. Robert is now an Associate Professor in the School of English at Birmingham City University.
• Suzy Orr (2003-7), ‘Hanging on the Telephone’  A Sociophonetic Study of Speech in a Glaswegian Call Centre, ESRC. Suzy is now a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Life Sciences, at the University of the West of Scotland.

Completed Masters students

Former Masters students include:

• David Mandic (2020-21). Glottalisation in Scottish Gaelic (MRes).
• Claire Thomson (2018), Real-time change in Dublin English (MRes)
• Sam de Smith (2000-4), Auditory and articulatory analysis of voice quality (MLitt)
• Owen McCarthy (2010-11), Ejective realisations of phrase final plosives in Glaswegian high school girls (MPhil)
• Sheona Gardner (2004-5), Welsh/English codeswitching in adolescents (MPhil)
• Karen Torrance (2001-2), Language attitudes and language change in Glasgow, AHRB (MPhil)

• Ashkenazi, Shaul
  Evaluating and Enhancing Human-Robot Interaction for Multiple Diverse Users in Real-World Contexts
• Jackson, Lucy
  Examining Media Effects on Implicit Sociolinguistic Cognition
• Lindgren, Nate
  Isolation, integration, and variation: a sociophonetic study on the role of religion in Sikh and Muslim Glaswegian
• Marshall, Edward
  Do choirs have accents?
• Pearce, Joe
  Voice quality in contemporary Scotland: perception, gender, & identity
• Shaw-Hawkins, Ryan
  Gender Beyond the Binary: A socio-articulatory study of laterals in nobinary speakers

Teaching at the University of Glasgow

• Level 1: Analysing Pronunciation; Varieties of English
• Honours (equivalent to Level 3 and 4):
  • Phonetics: Introductory Concepts (PIC)
  • Phonetics: Advanced Concepts (PAC)
  • Sociolinguistics (SOC)
  • Methods in Sociolinguistics of Variation (MSV)
  • Honours Dissertations
• PGT
  • Introduction to Phonetics (INTP)
  • Topics in Phonetics (TOPP)
  • Methods in Phonetics (METP)
  • Introduction to Sociolinguistics (INTS)
  • Methods in Sociolinguistics (METS)
  • Contemporary Scots
  • Research Training Course
  • Masters Dissertations

Guest Professorships/International Teaching

• June 2023: Labex International Chair, Laboratoire de linguistique francophone (LLF), Universite Cite Paris (Paris 7/Diderot)
• April-June 2022: Visiting Professor, Institute de linguistique et phonétique générales et appliquées (ILPGA), Université de la Sourbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3)
• December 2020: Guest Professor, Anglistik - Englisches Seminar, Leibnitz University Hannover: Intensiv Kurs: Sounds and social meaning (cancelled due to COVID-19)
• December 2018: Guest Professor, Anglistik - Englisches Seminar, Leibnitz University Hannover: Intensiv Kurs: Sounds and social meaning
• December 2016: Guest Professor, Anglistik - Englisches Seminar, Leibnitz University Hannover: Intensiv Kurs: Sounds and social meaning
• October 2014: Guest Professor, Anglistik - Englisches Seminar, Leibnitz University Hannover: Intensiv Kurs: Sounds and social meaning
• October 2006: I co-taught a bilingual German/English University course on the impact of the media on language change with Jannis Androutsopoulos, at Leibnitz University Hannover.

Invited Expert Tuition on International Summer Schools

• July 2015: advanced course at the Linguistics Society of America (LSA) Summer Institute, University of Chicago: Influence of the media on language change
• September 2011: Bergen Doctoral Summer School, University of Bergen, 20-23 September 2011: Language and the media
• July 2011: Glasgow Summer School for Sociolinguistics, English Language, University of Glasgow, 4-9 July 2011: Language and the media
• June 2011: Copenhagen Summer School for Sociolinguistics, LANCHART, University of Copenhagen, 6-10 June 2011: Sociophonetics, with N. Pharao

Commissions of Trust

• Elected to Fellowship of the British Academy (2023-)
• June 2023: Labex International Chair, Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle (LLF), CNRS/Université Cité Paris (Paris 7/Diderot)
• Visiting Professor, Institute de linguistique et phonétique générales et appliquées (ILPGA), Université de la Sourbonne Nouvelle, Paris, April-June 2022
• President, Association of Laboratory Phonology (2022-)
• Vice-President, Association of Laboratory Phonology (2020-22)
• Invited member of the Wissenschaftliche Beirat (Scientific Advisory Board) of ZAS, the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin (2020-)
• Deputy Chair, UK REF2021 Panel D26, Modern Languages and Linguistics (2018-2022)
• Elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2018-)
• Elected Member of the Council for the International Phonetic Association (2015-19; 2019-2023)
• Vice President of the Permanent Council for the Organisation of ICPhS
• Elected President of the British Academic Association of Phoneticians (2014-2022)
• Member of REF2014 Panel D28: Modern Languages and Linguistics
• Commonwealth Scholarships Commission (2014-)
• Re-elected as a member of the AHRC Virtual College (2012-)
• AHRC Virtual College (2006-12)
• AHRC Grants Board for Modern Languages and Linguistics (June 2010)
• ESRC First Grants Board (2007, 2008, 2009)
• ESRC Virtual College for Management, Psychology, Linguistics and Education (2002-2005)
• I review grant bids for the following funding bodies: Arts and Humanities Research Council, Belgian Research Council, British Academy, Canadian Research Council, the Carnegie Trust, Centre National de le Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Economic and Social Research Council (also Rapporteur), Leverhulme Trust, Marsden Research Scheme (New Zealand), National Science Foundation (US), National Endowment for the Humanities (US), Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO); Research Councils of Hong Kong and of South Africa.
• I have acted as Tenure Track/Professorial/Fellowship Assessor for: Australian Academy of the Humanities, Chicago University; Cornell University; La Trobe University, Australia; Ludwig-Maxmillians-University, Munich; Macquarie University; National University of Singapore; Queen Margaret University Edinburgh; Ohio State University (twice); Stanford University (twice); University of California at San Diego; University of Canterbury at ChristChurch, NZ; University of Cape Town; University of Michigan (twice); University of Sheffield; University of Trondheim; Virginia Technical University; University of York.
• I am often asked to review journal articles and book proposals for publishers and journals, including: Cambridge University Press, Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, English Language and Linguistics, English World Wide, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Journal of Phonetics, Journal of Sociolinguistics, Laboratory Phonology, Language, Language and Linguistic Compass, Language and Society, Language Variation and Change, Oxford University Press, Plos-One, Phonetica

Journal Editorial Boards

• 2014-: Language in Society
• 2010-2019: Journal of the International Phonetics Association (JIPA)

Conference Organization

• 2010-2015: Chair of the Local Organizing Committee for the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences - ICPhS 2015, hosted by a Scottish Consortium of four universities (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde and Queen Margaret University Edinburgh), held at the SECC, Glasgow, 10-14 August 2015 (1006 delegates).
• Scientific Committee membership, by location, includes: France: PAC; international: Laboratory Phonology, ICPhS, InterSpeech, r-atics, Workshop on Sound Change; Italy: AISV; UK: BAAP, UKLVC; US: NWAV.

External Examining

HDR

• Habilitation à diriger des recherches, Anders Ezurgi (University of Bayonne), Université Cité Paris. April 2024. 
• Habilitation à diriger des recherches, Monika Pukli (University of Strasbourg), Université Cité Paris. January 2022. 

PhD

• Perception and accommodation among French learners of English: An acoustic and electroglottographic study of creaky voice. Léa Burin. Université Cité Paris. 25 November 2022.
• Authentic Self, Incongruent Acoustics: A corpus-based sociophonetic analysis of nonbinary speech. Jacq Jones. University of Christchurch at Canterbury, NZ. 21 June 2022.
• The Social Meaning in Swearing Variation. Matthew Hunt. Queen Mary University London. 3 March 2022.
• Language and identity in the Cockney Diaspora: A sociophonetic and variationist study. Amanda Cole, University of Essex. 11 September 2020.
• Invited member of Dissertation Committee, Jacob Phillips, University of Chicago, 4 May 2020.
• Can women "sound gay"?: a sociophonetic study of /s/ and pitch. Salina Cuddy, University of York, 10 April 2020.
• Media practices, language attitudes, and sociophonetic variation in Pakistani English, Arshad Ali, University of Christchurch at Canterbury, NZ, 25 August 2019.
• Variation and change in Northern English velar nasals: production and perception, George Bailey, University of Manchester, 14 December 2018 
• Language variation and ethnicity in a multicultural East London secondary school, Shivonne Gates, Queen Mary University London, 13 September 2018
• The Scottish Vowel Length Rule in North East Scotland, David Warren, University of Aberdeen, 23 May 2018
• An analysis of /r/ variation in Singapore English, Geraldine Kwek, University of Cambridge, 26 January 2018
• The role of social factors in bilingual speech processing: The case of Galician New Speakers, Gise Tome Lourido, University College London, 7 October 2017
• Sound change and social meaning: The perception and production of phonetic change in York, Daniel Lawrence, University of Edinburgh, 13 September 2017
• Regional variation and innovation in Punjabi-accented English Jess Wormald, University of York, 12 April 2016
• The activation of non-target phonological knowledge in bilingual language processing: Fine-grained usage and bilingual variance. Joanna John, Kings College London, 15 September 2015
• Voice Quality Features in the Production of Pharyngeal Consonants by Iraqi Arabic Speakers, Wasah Alsiraih, University of Newcastle, 3 April 2013
• Meaning in English: L2 attitudes, choices and pronunciation in Norway, Ulrikke Rindal, University of Oslo, Norway, 2 May 2013
• Cues to vowels in the aperiodic phase of English plosive onsets, Kai Nyman, University of York, 19 January 2012
• Feature Patterns – their sources and status in grammar and reconstruction, Brett Miller,University of Cambridge, 14 January 2011
• Lexical frequency and Sound change in Danish, Nicolai Pharao, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, January 2010
• Pharyngealization in Lebanese Arabic, Hussain Kriba, University of Newcastle, December 2009
• A Sociolinguistic Ethnography of Selwyn Girls High, Katie Drager, University of Christ Church at Canterbury, NZ, April 2009
• Qualité de voix et accents régionaux en anglais britannique, Marion Coadou, University of Aix en Provence, France, 24 November 2007
• Phonetic distinctiveness as a sociolinguistic variable, Kevin Heffernan, University of Toronto, Canada, 17 April 2007
• Language change and Variation in Palestinian Arabic, Jamal Al Shareef, Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, University of Leeds, 15 August 2002

Taught Courses

• MA in Sociolinguistics, Sociolinguistics of the Arab World, University of Essex, 2014-2019.
• MA in Phonetics, University College London, 2010-2013.
• MA in Language, History and Society, University of Sheffield, 2009-13.
• BA in Linguistics/English Language, Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester, 2008-10.
• MA in English Language, Department of English Language, University of Edinburgh, 2005-9.
• MA in Phonetics, Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, University of Leeds, 2004-7.

iPhD

• iPhD in Phonetics and Phonology, University of Newcastle (February 2016-2022)

Keynote/Distinguished Talks

• title TBC  Methods in Dialectology XVIII. La Trobe University. Melbourne. 1-5 July 2024.
• What can speakers tell us about speech? 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023). Prague Congress Center, Czech Republic. 7-11 August 2023.
• Beyond the auld alliance? Using automated processing to identify variation and change in French and Scottish /r/. LSRL: Romance languages in a rapidly-changing world. ENS. Paris Saclay. 26 June 2023.
• Digging into English vowels with (a) SPADE: Reflections on vowel duration and quality from corpus phonetics. Phonetics and Phonology Denmark (PPDK). University of Copenhagen. 17-18 November 2022. 
• Style matters: Insights for conversational user interfaces from sociolinguistic theory. CUI 2022. Glasgow. 26-28 July 2022.
• R Three Ways:Capturing variability in word-final /r/ in Scottish English. R-atics7, University of Lausanne. 18 November 2021. 
• Moving targets: Insights into speaker and dialect variability from articulatory and acoustic phonetic studies across English. 3rd International Symposium on Applied Phonetics. Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona. 6 September 2021.
• Voice quality and social meaning. World Voice Day WVD2021. University of Turin. 16 April 2021.
• Making waves: Reflections on Ohala's contributions to Comparative Philology. Workshop in honour of John Ohala. Hosted by University of California at Berkeley, Universities of Paris 3, Lyon and Aix en Provence. 12-13 March 2020.
• Viewing accent variation from a large corpus perspective: Rhoticity in Scottish English. Experimental Phonetics and Phonology at 28th Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference (JK28), hosted by Seoul University. 28 December 2020.
• Persuading birds of a feather to flock together: Reflections on managing and measuring diverse speech corpora in SPADE. Australian Linguistics Society ALS2020 Online. Workshop: Harnessing mobile technologies for the creation of new speech corpora from remote communities. 14-15 December, 2020
• What can corpus phonetics tell us about English phonology? English Corpus Phonetics and Phonology, International Computer Archive for Modern and Medieval English (ICAME41), University of Heidelberg, 20 May, 2020
• Rethinking the role of the broadcast media in (de)standardization: Glasgow dialect meets ‘Mockney’, Copenhagen Linguistic Circle seminar on contemporary processes of (de-) standardization in Europe, 6 December, University of Copenhagen, 2019.
• Discussant, Fifth Workshop on Sound Change, University of California at Davis, June 20-22, 2019.
• Sound perspectives for inferring social meaning? Workshop on Social Meaning Berlin, Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft. 20-21March, 2019
• Sound perspectives? Speech and speaker dynamics over a century of Scottish English, Linguistics Colloquium, McGill University, 12 October 2018. 
• Sound perspectives? Speech and speaker dynamics over a century of Scottish English, International Congress of Linguists, University of Cape Town, South Africa, 2-6 July 2018.
• Digging into speech corpora: Introducing SPADE, a new initiative for mining spoken datasets on a large scale, Corpus Linguistics in Scotland - Corpus linguistics and cross-disciplinarity, University of Glasgow, 11 December 2017.
• Maintaining the Scottish difference? Changing sounds in a changing city, Society of Scottish Studies, University of Paris 13, 16-18 November 2017.
• Through the looking glass: Perspectives on sibilants and sound change in Glaswegian English. Phonetics and Phonology in German-speaking countries (P&P2017), Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS), Berlin, 26-28 September 2017.
• Through the looking glass: Changing perspectives on gender and the /s S/ contrast in Glasgow, Innovative Methods in Sociophonetics II, Satellite workshop to Fourth Workshop on Sound Change, University of Edinburgh, 19 April 2017
• A tale of one city: A sociophonetic study of 100+ years of Glaswegian vernacular, Colloquium Series, Linguistics Department, University of Michigan, 24 March 2017.
• Reaping the rewards: Insights from doing sociophonetic research across the recorded history of an urban dialect, Doing Sociophonetic Research, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, 8-10 February 2017.
• A tale of one city: A sociophonetic study of 100+ years of Glaswegian vernacular, English-speaking towns/cities: memoirs and narratives,Université Jean Monnet, St Étienne 20-21 October 2016.
• Speech on Safari, Experimental Approaches to the Perception and Production of Language Variation (ExAPP 2016), University of Vienna, 21-24 September 2016.
• ‘Look who’s talking now!' Social dynamics and phonetic variation, Laboratory Phonology 15,  Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, July 13-16, 2016.
• A dynamic acoustic view of real-time change in word-final liquids in spontaneous Glaswegian. One of four invited talks for Discussant Session on Sociophonetics. ICPhS 2015, Glasgow, 10-14 August 2015.
• Does TV change the way we speak?, World Leading Scholars in Language Variation and Change Lecture series, University of Sheffield, 13 May 2015.
• Bring hither the fatted coo! A real-time study of sound change in Glaswegian across the 20^th century, PAC Workshop, Université Jean Jaures Toulouse, 9-13 April 2015.
• Twa son, some soldiers, and a city: An investigation of real-time change in Scottish English, Australasian Speech Science Technology Association Conference, New Zealand Institute for Language Brain and Behaviour, 3-5 December 2014.
• Bridging the gap: The role of style in language change linked to the broadcast media, Roundtable on ‘Language, Style and Broadcast Media’, Copenhagen University, 12-13 June 2014.
• Social Factors and Sound Change, Third Workshop on Sound Change, University of California at Berkeley, May 2014.
• No longer an elephant in the room...: The influence of the media on sound change, International Conference on Spoken English: theme: Spoken English and the Media, University Université Paris 13 - Sorbonne Paris Cité, 4-5 April 2014.
• The social meaning of /s/: A cross-linguistic perspective, Panel discussant, ICLaVE7, Trondheim, June 2013.
• Socio-indexical factors in sound change actuation: Discussant, Workshop on Sound Change Actuation, University of Chicago, 17-18 April 2013.
• Human communication – or not? Experiencing speech without the possibility for interaction, Human dialectology and animal communication, GIPSA, Grenoble, 4-6 March 2013.
• Sounds without borders/Sons sans frontiers: exploring sociophonetic variation in Scottish English, Colloque International de Jeunes Chercheurs en Linguistique/International Conference of Young Researchers in Linguistics, University of Strasbourg France, 6-8 June 2012.
• Theory, method and practice: exploring the relationship between spoken language in the media and speech change in society, Japan Dialect Levelling Project Meeting, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tachikawa, Tokyo, 8-9 December 2011.
• He’s fae Walford, Ah’m from Glasgow: Phonological variation and change and Factor X (the television), UKLVC10, Edge Hill, 11-14 [14] September 2011.
• Sound change and the influence of the television, Distinguished Visiting Speaker, Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University, 6 May 2011.
• To interact or not to interact: a challenging question for sociophonetics, Variation in Language Processing, University of Chester, 13-15 April 2011 [cancelled because of illness].
• Working with sociophonetic data: A case study from Scottish English, Problems and Possibilities in Sociophonetics, University of Sheffield, 16 March 2011.
• Derhoticisation in Scottish English – the story so far, Sociophonetics – at the crossroads of speech variation, processing and communication, Scuola Normale Superiore, University of Pisa, 14-15 December 2010.
• News from the North: Some sociophonetic data from Scottish English and their implications for phonology, PAC Workshop, Montpellier, 13-14 September 2010.
• Detail and abstraction in sociophonology: Some data from Scottish English, 18^th Manchester Phonology Meeting, 20-22 May, 2010.
• Recent research in sociophonetics: Evidence from Scottish English, Phonetici Phonologici Dies, Centro di Competenza Lingue, Libera Università di Bolzano, 9-12 March 2009.
• Phonological variation and change in British Panjabi’ BAAL/CUP Seminar, Researching the Indic languages diaspora in Britain, University of York, 19-20 October, 2002.
• Should variationists worry about the influence of TV on speech?, UKLVC3, University of York, 19-22 July 2001.

Invited Talks

• title TBC. English Language and Linguistics Seminar. University of Newcastle. 10 May 2024.
• Sound perspectives for inferring social meaning? Speech and speaker dynamics over a century of Scottish English. Linguistics Seminar. University of Bangor. 10 May 2023.
• R Three Ways: Capturing the dynamics of Scottish word-final /r/. P* Reading Group. McGill University. 25 April 2023.
• Sound perspectives for inferring social meaning? Speech and speaker dynamics over a century of Scottish English. Linguistics Seminar. North Carolina State University. 21 April 2023.
• Sound perspectives for inferring social meaning? Speech and speaker dynamics over a century of Scottish English. LingLunch. LLF. Université Paris Cité. 2 June 2022. 
• R Three Ways: Capturing the dynamics of Scottish word-final /r/, using DCT and GAMMs. CLILLAC-ARP. University Cite Paris. 30 May 2022. 
• R Three Ways: Capturing the dynamics of Scottish word-final /r/, using DCT and GAMMs. SRPP. LPP. Sourbonne Nouvelle. 22 April 2022. 
• When Glaswegian met 'Mockney': Social factors and language ideologies in the destandardisation of a vernacular urban dialect. Linguistics Seminar. Northumbria University. 26 January 2022.
• Sound perspectives for inferring social meaning? Speech and speaker dynamics over a century of Scottish English, Oxford Graduate Seminar in Linguistics, 9 March, 2020.
• The fate of the Scottish Vowel Length Rule in contemporary Scottish English (with Rachel Macdonald), Workshop on New approaches to variation in present-day Scottish Englishes, BICLCE 2019, University of Bamberg, 26 September 2019.
• Developing tools for data sharing: Polyglot + ISCAN (Integrated Speech Corpus ANalysis), Phonetics and Phonology Seminar, University of Newcastle, 8 November 2018.
• Developing tools for data sharing: Polyglot + ISCAN (Integrated Speech Corpus ANalysis), WYRED Data Sharing Event, University of Huddersfield, 2 August 2018.
• Through the looking glass: Perspectives on sibilants and sound change in Glaswegian English, Linguistics Seminar, Queen Mary University London, 16 May 2018.
• Through the looking glass: Perspectives on sibilants and sound change in Glaswegian English, Linguistics Seminar, University of Newcastle, 2 November 2017.
• Through the looking glass: Perspectives on sibilants and sound change in Glaswegian English, Seminar Series, New Zealand Institute of Language, Brian, and Behaviour, University of Canterbury, ChristChurch, 20 October 2017.
• A tale of one city: A sociophonetic study of 100+ years of Glaswegian vernacular, Linguistic Society, University of Cambridge, 16 March 2017.
• Does watching TV change the way we speak?  Lingua-A Seminar, Englisches Seminar, Leibnitz University Hannover, 6 December 2016.
• Bring hither the fatted coo!’ A real-time study of sound change in Glaswegian across the 20^th century. Linguistic Circle, University of Edinburgh. 19 March 2015.
• On the impact of noise on vowel formants’. Special Session ‘Of vowels and “systems”’ Methods in Dialectology XV. 11 August 2014.
• No longer an elephant in the room: The influence of broadcast media on sound change in Scottish English, Sociolinguistic Lunch, Stanford University. 4 June 2014.
• The rhotic-derhotic continuum: A sociophonetic journey, GIPSA, Grenoble, 13 December 2012 [cancelled due to illness].
• Social factors and ejectives in Scottish English, Phonetics of non-pulmonic sounds, 7-9 October 2012, Jena [cancelled due to lack of funding for workshop].
• (with T. Rathcke), Getting our BOOTs on: Some preliminary findings from the Glasgow real-time project, LANCHART Centre, University of Copenhagen, 7 June 2012.
• Variation and change in Scottish English and the influence of the media, Joint Association of College English Teachers Meeting, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, 17 December 2011.
• Lessons we can learn from sociophonetics: the case of postvocalic /r/ in Scottish English, Phonetics and Phonology research group, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, 15 December 2011.
• Perspectives on sociophonetics: data from Scottish English: Part i: speech variation and social meaning; Part ii: experiencing speech without social interaction. Graduate Linguistics seminar International Christian University, Mitaka, Tokyo, 8 December 2011.
• What does watching television have to do with language change? Some recent evidence from Glasgow, Scotland, Phonetics and Phonology seminar, Tsukuba University, Tsukuba, 7 December 2011.
• Does watching TV alter the way you speak? Empirical evidence from an urban dialect, Research Colloquium: National Institute of Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tachikawa/Tokyo, 6 December 2011.
• Sound change and the influence of the television, Stanford Linguistics Seminar, 13 May 2011.
• An experimental investigation of responding to speech with or without interaction, University of Stanford, 12 May 2011.
• The fate of postvocalic /r/ in Scottish English: the story so far, Sociolinguistics Lunch, Stanford, 11 May 2011.
• The fate of postvocalic /r/ in Scottish English: the story so far, Phonology Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, 10 May 2011.
• Individuals, language change and television, Changelings – Historical Linguistics Seminar, Ohio State University, 6 May 2011.
• To interact or not to interact?, So mean – Sociolinguistics Seminar, Ohio State University, 6 May 2011.
• Considering the development of the PIE voiced aspirates in Italic, Comparative Slavonic Class, Ohio State University, 4 May 2011.
• The rhotic-derhotic continuum in Scottish English: Recent sociophonetic data from the Central Belt, General Linguistics Seminar, University of Oxford, 7 March 2011.
• Style, stance, sound change and the media, LANCHART Centre, University of Copenhagen, 28 January 2010.
• Style and stance and the influence of television on sound change, Edinburgh Linguistic Circle, University of Edinburgh, 11 January 2010.
• The social distribution of clicks, Workshop on Clicks, Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, 9 October 2009.
• Understanding media-influenced language change, Research Seminar, Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, 28 May 2009.
• Language change and the media: The stylistic dimension, Language, Discourse and Communications Seminar, Department of Education, King’s College London, 4 December 2008.
• Looking for Gender in Glasgow, IGALA5, University of Wellington, NZ, 4 July 2008.
• Television and language change: Evidence from Glasgow, Hauptseminar für Soziophonetik, Institut für Phonetik und Sprachverarbeitung, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität München, 28 May 2008.
• Discussion of data on TV and accent change, University of Toronto, 18 April 2007.
• Is Mockney creeping north?  Investigating the impact of TV on language change, Centre for Mass Communications Research, University of Leicester, 7 March 2007.
• A social basis for sound change? Television and accent change in Glasgow, Hauptseminar für Soziophonetik, Institut für Phonetik und Sprachverarbeitung, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität München, 20 December 2006.
• From Cockney to Jockney? The role of television in accent change in Modern Urban Scots, History of Scots Seminar, University of Giessen, 14 December 2006.
• We fink, so we are from Glasgow: TV and accent change in Glaswegian, Research Seminar, Department of Linguistics, Radboud University Nijmegen, 12 December 2006.
• The Glasgow media project: accent change and television, Medien und Sprachwandel/Media and Language Change, Department of German, University of Hannover, 23 November 2006.
• Investigating the role of TV in accent change: TH-fronting in Glaswegian, MA Seminar, Outline of a history of the Danish speech community, 1999-2000, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics and Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Copenhagen, 3 October 2006.
• (with C. Timmins, G. Pryce) Bart Simpson lives in York and speaks Glaswegian: Accents, attitudes and imitation in Glaswegian adolescents, Research Seminar, Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, 24 May 2005.
• (with C. Timmins, G. Pryce) Investigating the effects of television on change in urban accents:The story so far, Research Seminar, Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Lancaster, 15 March 2005.
• (with C. Timmins) Investigating the role of television as a factor in language change, Research Seminar, FachbereichLiteratur- und Sprachwissenschaft, University of Hannover, 16 November 2004.
• (with C. Timmins) Analysing the language of television: The case of media-Cockney, Paper presented as part of Seminar für Medienlinguistik, University of Hannover, 15 November 2004.
• (with C. Timmins) Investigating the effects of mobility on language variation and change, Research Seminar, Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex, 4 November 2004.
• Complex consonants: interpreting phonological variation and change in Glaswegia’, Linguistics and Phonetics Seminar, University of Leeds, 16 March 2004.
• 'Talkin' Jockney': variation and change in Glaswegian, Linguistics Seminar, University of Aberdeen, 9 March 2004.
• Sabellian phonology, Cambridge Italic seminar, 18 February 2004.
• Changing consonants: insights from a contemporary spoken corpus, The Philological Society, University of Manchester, 21 November 2003.
• Bad language crosses the border: Accent change in Glaswegian, OED Forum, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 4 November 2003.
• Nae bovver: Accent change in Glaswegian, Linguistic Circle, University of Edinburgh, 30 October 2003.
• Nae bovver: What's happening to Glaswegian?, Linguistics Seminar (English Literature, Language and Linguistics), University of Newcastle, 19 February 2003.
• (with P. Probert), How far can we rely on Sanskrit?  Comparison and phonetics, Graduate Seminar in Comparative Philology, University of Oxford, 14 November 2000.
• (with E. Lawson), A sociophonetic investigation of the ‘Scottish’ consonants (/x/ and /hw/) in the speech of Glaswegian schoolchildren, P-Workshop, University of Edinburgh, 2 March 1999.
• (with K. K. Dhesi), Variation and change in the realization of lexical tone in ‘British’ Panjabi, Linguistics Seminar, Department of Linguistics and Phonetics, University of Leeds,  25 November, 1998.
• (with D. Martin), Phonological processing and literacy development in Panjabi/English children, Linguistics Seminar, Department of Speech and Language, University of Newcastle, 21 November 1996.
• (with M. Cortina-Borja), A preliminary investigation of tone in British Panjabi, Linguistics Seminar, School of Oriental and African Studies, 29 October 1996.
• Phonetics and the evaluation of reconstructed sound change, General Linguistics Seminar, Department of Linguistics, University of York, 25 January 1996.