Research
My research interests are in phonology and morphology, particularly within Ethiopian and Eritrean Semitic languages (linguistic designation: Ethio-Semitic ). I emphasize theory construction based on a solid empirical database, working with native speakers.
Languages covered include Tigre, Tigrinya, Harari (or Adarinya) and Gurage (Chaha, Ezha, Gyeta, Muher).

My recent theoretical work focuses on long distance interactions in phonology, with three main areas of research.
One area includes a study of long-distance consonant agreement (consonant harmony and co-occurrence restrictions on consonants) undertaken with Rachel Walker at USC. Our proposal maintains that consonant agreement should be analyzed via correspondence relations between consonants rather than through feature spreading, and is articulated within Optimality Theory. The speech planning underpinnings of this proposal have been investigated in Semitic for both Amharic and Chaha in speech error elicitation experiments, co-authored with Lisa King, a graduate student at UCSD
Related to this work is a study of co-occurrence restrictions on consonants across an intervening vowel (OCP effects), focusing on Tigre and Tigrinya. This includes a reanalysis of cases of 'antigemination' or the avoidance of adjacent identical consonants.
Reduplication is another connected area of interest, particularly in relation to Semitic morphology. Recent papers focus on what reduplication reveals about the status of the root in Semitic morphology, the interaction of reduplication with lenition processes, the realization of morphosyntactic features and constraints on multiple reduplication.
I am also interested in the long distance interplay between gemination and phonetic consonant duration, examined in a BLS paper with Todd O'Bryan and a paper on Endegen to appear in the 15th ICES.


Recent drafts/handouts:

• (with Lisa King). (2003). Speech Error Elicitation and Co-occurrence Restrictions in Two Ethiopian Semitic Languages. Paper presented at the MIT Markedness and the Lexicon Workshop and at a UCLA Psycholinguistics Colloquium. Submitted.

• (with Amalia Arvaniti). (2003). Two sources of evidence against the moraic timing of geminates. Paper presented at the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA

Recent publications:

• (to appear). Chaha (Gurage) Morphology. In A.S. Kaye (ed.) Morphologies of Asia and Africa. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

• (to appear) Durational conditions on Endegen gemination. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies.

• (with Rachel Walker). (2004). A Typology of Consonant Agreement as Correspondence. Language 80:475-531.
  

• (2004). Long-distance vowel-consonant agreement in Harari. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 25:41-87

• (2003) Triple Take: Tigre and the case of internal reduplication San Diego Linguistic Papers 1:109-128. (Note: was originally accepted for publication  in  R. Hayward, J. Ouhalla, D. Perrett (eds.) Studies in AfroAsiatic Grammar. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, but Benjamins was forced to cancel the volume due to lack of editor response)

• (2003). The formation of Ethiopian Semitic internal reduplication.  In J. Shimron (ed.) Language Processing and Acquisition in Languages of Semitic, Root-based, Morphology. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 79-97.

• (with Todd O'Bryan). (2001). Segmental effects on (de)gemination in Western Gurage. Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Special Session on Afroasiatic Languages, pp. 87-98.
  

• (2000).  Epenthesis positioning and syllable contact in Chaha. Phonology 17.3:397-425.

• (2000). Rethinking geminates, long-distance geminates and the OCP. Linguistic Inquiry 31:85-122.

• (2000).  Velar Lenition in Muher Gurage . Lingua Posnaniensis 42:107-116.

• (2000). Multiple Correspondence in Reduplication. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, M. Juge & J. Moxley (eds.), pp. 315-326.