Alexandra Pfiffner
@ampfiffner.bsky.social
Linguist, phonetician, and lecturer @ UC Berkeley
Super excited to share that my Afrikaans paper has been published! Following in the footsteps of Coetzee et al. (2018), I examine age and gender effects in the ongoing tonogenesis in Afrikaans. 📖 Open access here:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Women of All Ages Lead Tonogenesis in Afrikaans | Journal of Germanic Linguistics | Cambridge Core
Women of All Ages Lead Tonogenesis in Afrikaans - Volume 37 Issue 3
www.cambridge.org
October 9, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Super excited to share that my Afrikaans paper has been published! Following in the footsteps of Coetzee et al. (2018), I examine age and gender effects in the ongoing tonogenesis in Afrikaans. 📖 Open access here:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
This is actually the worst thing I’ve seen from federal granting agencies thus far.
This CDC "survey" getting sent to grantees is wild yall.
This is some serious "Kiss my Ring" level bullshit.
This is some serious "Kiss my Ring" level bullshit.
March 7, 2025 at 4:41 PM
This is actually the worst thing I’ve seen from federal granting agencies thus far.
I genuinely don't know how this started, but I absolutely love it 🐈⬛
January 18, 2025 at 11:08 PM
I genuinely don't know how this started, but I absolutely love it 🐈⬛
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
After we released this bonus episode, very talented listener Melody sent us these photos of her own crocheted model of the vocal tract! She kindly gave us permission to share them publicly.
If you too have a crocheted vocal tract that you've made, please send us pictures, we'd love to see more!
If you too have a crocheted vocal tract that you've made, please send us pictures, we'd love to see more!
January 17, 2025 at 10:51 PM
After we released this bonus episode, very talented listener Melody sent us these photos of her own crocheted model of the vocal tract! She kindly gave us permission to share them publicly.
If you too have a crocheted vocal tract that you've made, please send us pictures, we'd love to see more!
If you too have a crocheted vocal tract that you've made, please send us pictures, we'd love to see more!
It’s fun to catch up with friends at #LSA2025 & #ADS2025, and WOTY is always a highlight.
But nothing will beat @mkb933.bsky.social GIVING A TALK ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BEHALF (not a coauthor!), on short notice, while chairing the session, and then taking questions to pass on to authors.
Legendary.
But nothing will beat @mkb933.bsky.social GIVING A TALK ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BEHALF (not a coauthor!), on short notice, while chairing the session, and then taking questions to pass on to authors.
Legendary.
January 14, 2025 at 10:56 PM
It’s fun to catch up with friends at #LSA2025 & #ADS2025, and WOTY is always a highlight.
But nothing will beat @mkb933.bsky.social GIVING A TALK ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BEHALF (not a coauthor!), on short notice, while chairing the session, and then taking questions to pass on to authors.
Legendary.
But nothing will beat @mkb933.bsky.social GIVING A TALK ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BEHALF (not a coauthor!), on short notice, while chairing the session, and then taking questions to pass on to authors.
Legendary.
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Proud to be a linguistic chaos gremlin.
The linguistic chaos gremlins have chosen to rawdog the English language itself with their choice of 2024 Word Of The Year
www.avclub.com/american-dia...
www.avclub.com/american-dia...
American Dialect Society once again chooses chaos, names "rawdog" 2024 Word Of The Year
American Dialect Society once again chooses chaos, names "rawdog" 2024 Word Of The Year
www.avclub.com
January 12, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Proud to be a linguistic chaos gremlin.
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Increased reliance on ChatGPT was associated with higher levels of procrastination and memory loss, and a negative impact on academic performance, as reflected in students’ grade point averages.”
www.psypost.org/chatgpt-link...
www.psypost.org/chatgpt-link...
ChatGPT linked to declining academic performance and memory loss in new study
New research uncovers a concerning trend: while ChatGPT might aid students under academic pressure, its excessive use is linked to procrastination, memory loss, and poorer grades, highlighting a negat...
www.psypost.org
January 13, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Increased reliance on ChatGPT was associated with higher levels of procrastination and memory loss, and a negative impact on academic performance, as reflected in students’ grade point averages.”
www.psypost.org/chatgpt-link...
www.psypost.org/chatgpt-link...
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
"Rawdog" is the 2024 American Dialect Society word of the year. Read the full press release. #WOTY2024 #ADS2025 #LSA2025 americandialect.org/2024-word-of...
2024 Word of the Year Is “Rawdog” - American Dialect Society
Philadelphia Marriott Downtown–Jan. 10—The American Dialect Society, in its 35th annual words-of-the-year vote, selected rawdog as the Word of the Year for 2024. More than three hundred attendees took...
americandialect.org
January 11, 2025 at 5:23 AM
"Rawdog" is the 2024 American Dialect Society word of the year. Read the full press release. #WOTY2024 #ADS2025 #LSA2025 americandialect.org/2024-word-of...
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
A lovely obituary for Bill Labov in the Inquirer.
William Labov, ‘father of sociolinguistics’ who studied the Philadelphia accent, dies at 97
William Labov's work changed whose dialects linguists saw worthy of study and dove into the socioeconomic politics of language. He is considered the father of sociolinguistics.
www.inquirer.com
December 24, 2024 at 12:17 AM
A lovely obituary for Bill Labov in the Inquirer.
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Vale William Labov.
Inspired by a colleague on X, I think my favourite Bill Labov quote is:
“I have resisted the term *sociolinguistics* for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not social.”
Thank you for everything, Bill.
Inspired by a colleague on X, I think my favourite Bill Labov quote is:
“I have resisted the term *sociolinguistics* for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not social.”
Thank you for everything, Bill.
December 18, 2024 at 9:14 AM
Vale William Labov.
Inspired by a colleague on X, I think my favourite Bill Labov quote is:
“I have resisted the term *sociolinguistics* for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not social.”
Thank you for everything, Bill.
Inspired by a colleague on X, I think my favourite Bill Labov quote is:
“I have resisted the term *sociolinguistics* for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not social.”
Thank you for everything, Bill.
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Just did a calculation of our lab's time from project conception to publication (e-pub) over the past x years. We're averaging 3.5 years from the first idea to acceptance. About 6-9 months of this is review time. Don't know how typical this is but good reality check esp. for trainees.
December 13, 2024 at 1:29 PM
Just did a calculation of our lab's time from project conception to publication (e-pub) over the past x years. We're averaging 3.5 years from the first idea to acceptance. About 6-9 months of this is review time. Don't know how typical this is but good reality check esp. for trainees.
A student just gave me the best gift and I will treasure it forever 😭🤍
December 10, 2024 at 11:34 PM
A student just gave me the best gift and I will treasure it forever 😭🤍
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
The official motto of experimental linguists anyone?
"Look, you're not getting out of this without wearing some kind of thing on your head, just pick one"
November 24, 2024 at 5:32 PM
The official motto of experimental linguists anyone?
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
I'm excited to share our new study on cross-modal iconicity from our special issue in JASA! We show [r] is rough and [l] is smooth even in languages that conflate them within one phoneme. The effect is even stronger than the bouba/kiki effect!
The alveolar trill is perceived as jagged/rough by speakers of different languages
Typological research shows that across languages, trilled [r] sounds are more common in adjectives describing rough as opposed to smooth surfaces. In this study
doi.org
November 20, 2024 at 2:52 PM
I'm excited to share our new study on cross-modal iconicity from our special issue in JASA! We show [r] is rough and [l] is smooth even in languages that conflate them within one phoneme. The effect is even stronger than the bouba/kiki effect!
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
📊When teaching or giving a talk, do you like presenting plots step by step, revealing e.g. one group at a time? This is often useful for walking through complex results.
I made a R package that makes it extremely easy to do this!
ggreveal: Reveal a ggplot incrementally
#rstats #dataviz #ggplot2
I made a R package that makes it extremely easy to do this!
ggreveal: Reveal a ggplot incrementally
#rstats #dataviz #ggplot2
Reveal a ggplot incrementally
Provides functions that make it easy to reveal ggplot2 graphs incrementally. The functions take a ggplot2 object and return a list of plots showing data incrementally by panels, layers, groups, the va...
www.weverthon.com
July 24, 2024 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
One for the syntax folk
🐦🐦
🐦🐦
June 29, 2024 at 4:30 PM
One for the syntax folk
🐦🐦
🐦🐦
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
look upon my works ye mighty and despair
June 8, 2024 at 6:03 PM
look upon my works ye mighty and despair
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
praatpicture 1.2.0 is now on CRAN, time for a HYPE THREAD 👀💅💯💥🍾🎉🎆
May 23, 2024 at 10:03 AM
praatpicture 1.2.0 is now on CRAN, time for a HYPE THREAD 👀💅💯💥🍾🎉🎆
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Ever wondered how to ask inclusive, clear and accurate gender questions in survey research? But not had any data support your best guesses?
Very excited to announce we have a new paper out in Linguistics Vanguard investigating exactly that! (Out now! Open Access!)
www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
Very excited to announce we have a new paper out in Linguistics Vanguard investigating exactly that! (Out now! Open Access!)
www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
Minority genders in quantitative survey research: a data-driven approach to clear, inclusive, and accurate gender questions
Whilst linguistic research on speakers of minority genders has increased in the past decade, much less is known about how they can best be included in broader (socio)linguistic research. The current p...
www.degruyter.com
April 29, 2024 at 10:31 AM
Ever wondered how to ask inclusive, clear and accurate gender questions in survey research? But not had any data support your best guesses?
Very excited to announce we have a new paper out in Linguistics Vanguard investigating exactly that! (Out now! Open Access!)
www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
Very excited to announce we have a new paper out in Linguistics Vanguard investigating exactly that! (Out now! Open Access!)
www.degruyter.com/document/doi...
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
I have some coloring sheets your language and #linguistics classes might enjoy for some finals season de-stressing! Here’s one of my students’ work!
sites.google.com/view/ear-sci...
sites.google.com/view/ear-sci...
April 30, 2024 at 4:29 PM
I have some coloring sheets your language and #linguistics classes might enjoy for some finals season de-stressing! Here’s one of my students’ work!
sites.google.com/view/ear-sci...
sites.google.com/view/ear-sci...
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Lego Creator Expert: The Social Stratification of (r) in New York City Department Stores
March 20, 2024 at 11:59 AM
Lego Creator Expert: The Social Stratification of (r) in New York City Department Stores
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Roses are red
Shapes have no sound
Except kikis are pointy
And boubas are round
Shapes have no sound
Except kikis are pointy
And boubas are round
February 14, 2024 at 9:33 PM
Roses are red
Shapes have no sound
Except kikis are pointy
And boubas are round
Shapes have no sound
Except kikis are pointy
And boubas are round
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Hey, I'm finally recruiting for a paid study! This is for anyone over 18 and fluent in English who uses neopronouns (like "xe," "fae," "thon," etc) as their personal pronouns. If you're interested, you can sign up to receive more information at the link below! Please share far and wide!!
Neopronouns interview study interest form
This form is to express interest in participating in an interview study conducted by Professor Kirby Conrod at Swarthmore College.
Completing this interest form is just to give us a way to contact ...
forms.gle
February 7, 2024 at 5:52 PM
Hey, I'm finally recruiting for a paid study! This is for anyone over 18 and fluent in English who uses neopronouns (like "xe," "fae," "thon," etc) as their personal pronouns. If you're interested, you can sign up to receive more information at the link below! Please share far and wide!!
Reposted by Alexandra Pfiffner
Students discussing the IPA: "to make the vowels nasal, you give them a moustache"
October 18, 2023 at 1:31 PM
Students discussing the IPA: "to make the vowels nasal, you give them a moustache"