Jonathan North Washington

Нарын обулусу, Кыргызстан
Photo: Doug Gemin

I am a grad student in the linguistics department at Indiana University. I received my undergraduate degree in both linguistics and anthropology from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, in 2005, and I recently received my M.A. from the linguistics department at the University of Washington in Seattle.

My research interests include phonological theory, phonetics, comparative and historical linguistics, Turkic languages (mostly Kazakh and Kyrgyz), and especially where these overlap. My Masters thesis examined sonority-based unfaithfulness across syllable boundaries in Turkic languages, and these days I am working with field data gathered in Kyrgyzstan in 2008 while on a Fulbright.

And though I don't study it formally, my life becomes more and more involved with Free / open source software, which I exclusively rely on (e.g., linux, LaTeX) and write (usually in python) to accomplish a number of everyday tasks, often linguistics-related.

Links

• Ling 200 — Ling 200 course website, summer 2007
• CV
• Current Schedule — Fall 2010
• FAQ
• Contact me

Research

Squibs (i.e. term papers), research papers, and presentations:

• "Insights on Coda Cluster Phonology in Kazakh and Kyrgyz from a Split-Margin Approach" (October 2009, CESS 10)
  [ handout: pdf (163kB) ] — 8 pages.
  
  Describes and compares the coda cluster phonology of Kazakh and Kyrgyz, uncovering previously undescribed nuances of the languages. A preliminary Split-Margin analysis and some attested irregular forms provide interesting insights into the history of coda cluster phonology in Turkic.
• "Historical Interactions among Turkic Groups Inferred through Constraint-based Linguistic Typology" (September 2008, CESS 09)
  [ handout version: pdf (1.6MB) | slides: pdf (528kB) ] — 4 pages (handout) / 18 slides (slideshow).
  
  Presents a framework for potentially working out historical fluxes in the contact between Turkic groups based on geograhic spreading of typological features related to sonority and syllable contact, identifiable in the phonologies of two dozen Turkic languages.
• "Phonetic and Phonological Problems in Kyrgyz: A Fulbrighter's plans for gathering data in the field" (August 2007)
  [ handout version: pdf (9.3MB) | slides: pdf (9.6MB) ] — 20 slides (handout) / 91 frames (slideshow).
  
  Provides background on the Kyrgyz language, particularly phonetics and phonology, and outlines specific issues for investigation in upcoming fieldwork. Presented to linguistics faculty and graduate students at Indiana University.
• "Theoretical linguistics meets Turkic languages: A unification of inter- and cross-linguistic patterns" (May 2007, Poppe 19)
  [ handout version: pdf (110kB) | slides: pdf (557kB) ] — 18 slides (handout) / 114 frames (slideshow).
  
  Presents phonological theory, Turkic languages, and examples of their interplay to a general academic audience in 20 minutes. Prepared for the 19th Annual Nicholas Poppe Symposium on Central/Inner Asian Studies as a presentation of work on my M.A. thesis.
• "Root Vowels and Affix Vowels: Height Effects in Kyrgyz Vowel Harmony" (December 2006)
  [ pdf (132kB) ] — 20p.
  
  A pilot acoustic study of Kyrgyz vowels, which notices significant differences between root and affix vowels, as well as effects of the height of root vowels on affix vowels when rounded.
• "An Investigation of Kyrgyz Rounding Harmony" (June 2006)
  [ pdf (157kB) ] — 21p.
  
  Looks at Kyrgyz rounding harmony in depth, discusses and problematises previous OT analyses, and calls for further phonetic research.
• "On the Epistemology of Relative Clause Constructions in Kazakh" (March 2006)
  [ pdf (194kB) ] — 17p.
  
  Attempts to present a clear and descriptively adequate depiction of relative clauses in Kazakh, and presents previous analyses as a starting point for further research.
• "Where Turkic stress falls: Challenging final-stress analyses in Kazakh and Kyrgyz" (March 2006)
  [ pdf (284kB) ] — 14p.
  
  Looks at Kazakh and Kyrgyz stress patterns, OT analyses of them, and calls for more in-depth phonetic research.
• "A Novel Approach to Delineating Kazakh's Five Present Tenses: Lexical Aspect" (January 2006, LSA 78)
  [ paper draft: pdf (777kB) | LSA 2006 handout: pdf (757kB) ] — 10p. (paper, single-spaced) / 11p. (handout)
  
  Continuation of my senior thesis investigation of aspectual strategies used with the present tense in Kazakh. Presented at the LSA in 2006.

Play

What I do for fun; not entirely different from what I study:

• firespeaker.org — where I play