Professor Bert Vaux

Research interests: 

Prof Vaux is primarily interested in phenomena that shed light on the structure and origins of the phonological component of grammar, especially in the realms of psychophonology (language games, speech errors, acquisition of first, second, and toy languages, development of writing systems), historical linguistics (sound change, reconstruction, evolution of language, Indo-European, Altaic, and Northwest Caucasian languages), and sociolinguistics (dialectology, microvariation, and nanovariation). I also enjoy working with native speakers to document endangered languages, especially dialects of Armenian, Abkhaz, and English.

Recent research projects: 

The Armenian dialect of New Julfa, Isfahan (Oxford University Press, to appear); the Cwyzhy dialect of Abkhaz; the evolution of phonological scope.

Published works: 

Vaux, B. and Nevins, A. (2008). Rules and Constraints in Contemporary Phonological Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vaux, B., Cooper, J. and Tucker, E. (2006). Linguistic Field Methods. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Vaux, B. (1998). The Phonology of Armenian. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vaux, B. (1998). The Laryngeal Specifications of Fricatives. Linguistic Inquiry 29.3:497-512.

Supervisor of: 

Kerri Butcher

Chenming Gao