Christian DiCanio
@cdicanio.bsky.social
Phonetician and linguist studying prosody and indigenous languages of Mexico / Fonetista y lingüista que estudia idiomas indígenas de México. University at Buffalo. He - él - il - sij³. 🏳️🌈
Also ttrpg (rifts, d&d)
https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~cdicanio
Also ttrpg (rifts, d&d)
https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~cdicanio
The thing to understand about Ron Johnson is that he’s a terrible person.
January 28, 2026 at 6:15 PM
The thing to understand about Ron Johnson is that he’s a terrible person.
Fall dusk sunlight on green
January 25, 2026 at 10:51 PM
Fall dusk sunlight on green
And the common ground is hell.
January 25, 2026 at 1:29 PM
And the common ground is hell.
Thank you for the work you are doing. I think that it must be the news sources of course. Like 1,000 protests against ICE happened last week after Renée Good was killed. I imagine that it was close to a million people. It was certainly more than the Alexanderplatz demonstrations in 1989.
January 21, 2026 at 9:39 PM
Thank you for the work you are doing. I think that it must be the news sources of course. Like 1,000 protests against ICE happened last week after Renée Good was killed. I imagine that it was close to a million people. It was certainly more than the Alexanderplatz demonstrations in 1989.
This sentence has ‘He and Juan’ under focus actually, so the emphatic form can not be under focus. They’re independent.
January 21, 2026 at 4:29 PM
This sentence has ‘He and Juan’ under focus actually, so the emphatic form can not be under focus. They’re independent.
Any time that you have two distinct referents that would use the same clitic pronoun, the emphatic seems to be used.
Ma²han³=sij³ nga¹ Xwan⁴³ k-a³hmin³² nga¹=sih⁴
self=3M with Juan PERF-speak with=3M.EMPH
‘He(i) and Juan spoke with him(j).'
Ma²han³=sij³ nga¹ Xwan⁴³ k-a³hmin³² nga¹=sih⁴
self=3M with Juan PERF-speak with=3M.EMPH
‘He(i) and Juan spoke with him(j).'
January 21, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Any time that you have two distinct referents that would use the same clitic pronoun, the emphatic seems to be used.
Ma²han³=sij³ nga¹ Xwan⁴³ k-a³hmin³² nga¹=sih⁴
self=3M with Juan PERF-speak with=3M.EMPH
‘He(i) and Juan spoke with him(j).'
Ma²han³=sij³ nga¹ Xwan⁴³ k-a³hmin³² nga¹=sih⁴
self=3M with Juan PERF-speak with=3M.EMPH
‘He(i) and Juan spoke with him(j).'
In (22b), the clitic is not under focus, but in (22c), it actually is preverbal (so now under focus). Focus *requires* NPs to be preverbal - it’s almost exceptionless. The language is otherwise VSO.
January 21, 2026 at 4:20 PM
In (22b), the clitic is not under focus, but in (22c), it actually is preverbal (so now under focus). Focus *requires* NPs to be preverbal - it’s almost exceptionless. The language is otherwise VSO.
So, the dog gets marked with =chuh4 (‘h’ = glottal stop, the ‘j’ is /h/). The clitic is now marked as emphatic. It’s being used to disambiguate between two entities that would otherwise take the same clitic.
Many languages might just repeat the NP to clarify, but Triqui keeps everything pronominal.
Many languages might just repeat the NP to clarify, but Triqui keeps everything pronominal.
January 21, 2026 at 4:18 PM
So, the dog gets marked with =chuh4 (‘h’ = glottal stop, the ‘j’ is /h/). The clitic is now marked as emphatic. It’s being used to disambiguate between two entities that would otherwise take the same clitic.
Many languages might just repeat the NP to clarify, but Triqui keeps everything pronominal.
Many languages might just repeat the NP to clarify, but Triqui keeps everything pronominal.
So, I’m providing an example here. This is from a retelling of ‘Frog, where are you?’ In (22a), the animal clitic is used =chuj3 (numbers are tones) and the 3m clitic refers to the boy in the text. In (22b) and (22c), the dog is introduced into the description and suddenly there are two animals.
January 21, 2026 at 4:16 PM
So, I’m providing an example here. This is from a retelling of ‘Frog, where are you?’ In (22a), the animal clitic is used =chuj3 (numbers are tones) and the 3m clitic refers to the boy in the text. In (22b) and (22c), the dog is introduced into the description and suddenly there are two animals.
It’s not contrastive focus. That’s also syntactic (I have a separate section in my grammar on it). Speakers never choose to use the emphatic in those contexts. The deictic angle might be more relevant - it's used for disjoint reference for instance.
January 21, 2026 at 2:16 PM
It’s not contrastive focus. That’s also syntactic (I have a separate section in my grammar on it). Speakers never choose to use the emphatic in those contexts. The deictic angle might be more relevant - it's used for disjoint reference for instance.
Is there a non-paywall version? My library doesn’t even get it.
January 21, 2026 at 1:50 PM
Is there a non-paywall version? My library doesn’t even get it.
I’m constantly surprised at tech bros not getting that 75% of people just want annoying AI assistants to go away. It’s like they tied all their bets to asserting that clippy is likeable.
January 20, 2026 at 11:27 PM
I’m constantly surprised at tech bros not getting that 75% of people just want annoying AI assistants to go away. It’s like they tied all their bets to asserting that clippy is likeable.
It’s supposed to take 1-3 months. Yesterday was annoying, but today was ok. All I can do is get enough sleep. It’s weird constantly having blobby swirls in your upper peripheral vision, but your brain kinda gets used to it in a weird way (or you compensate).
January 20, 2026 at 11:24 PM
It’s supposed to take 1-3 months. Yesterday was annoying, but today was ok. All I can do is get enough sleep. It’s weird constantly having blobby swirls in your upper peripheral vision, but your brain kinda gets used to it in a weird way (or you compensate).
I hope things go better for you. I have been dealing with a posterior vitreous detachment for about a month now and it’s constantly annoying. There’s something about dusk light too that makes it harder to see for me. Night is fine.
January 20, 2026 at 10:14 PM
I hope things go better for you. I have been dealing with a posterior vitreous detachment for about a month now and it’s constantly annoying. There’s something about dusk light too that makes it harder to see for me. Night is fine.
…and if you have difficulty recalling it, it means that maybe it’s not part of a stored representation.
Reminds me a little of recent work doing elicitation with Triqui speakers - they are terrible at recognizing tonally-derived forms out of context.
Reminds me a little of recent work doing elicitation with Triqui speakers - they are terrible at recognizing tonally-derived forms out of context.
January 18, 2026 at 2:30 PM
…and if you have difficulty recalling it, it means that maybe it’s not part of a stored representation.
Reminds me a little of recent work doing elicitation with Triqui speakers - they are terrible at recognizing tonally-derived forms out of context.
Reminds me a little of recent work doing elicitation with Triqui speakers - they are terrible at recognizing tonally-derived forms out of context.
There’s also this study that I remember looking at last year. Stress is one of those things that is often “simple” to compute in many languages. Findings conclude that the less exceptional it is, the more speakers have difficulty recalling it.
www.journal-labphon.org/article/id/1...
www.journal-labphon.org/article/id/1...
When recall gets stressful: comparing Papuan Malay and German listeners' lexical storage of word stress
Recent studies indicated that Papuan Malay, spoken in the Eastern provinces of Indonesia, has regular penultimate word stress. Only when schwa occurs in the penultimate syllable, stress is ultimate, m...
www.journal-labphon.org
January 18, 2026 at 2:26 PM
There’s also this study that I remember looking at last year. Stress is one of those things that is often “simple” to compute in many languages. Findings conclude that the less exceptional it is, the more speakers have difficulty recalling it.
www.journal-labphon.org/article/id/1...
www.journal-labphon.org/article/id/1...
Open access and sharing via OSF or other platforms neither had an established incentivization structure nor did it involve any discussion with archivists/librarians about what online accessibility means.
January 18, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Open access and sharing via OSF or other platforms neither had an established incentivization structure nor did it involve any discussion with archivists/librarians about what online accessibility means.
I feel like I’m often compelled by the “everything is stored!” perspective when people are looking at isolating languages but then it just isn’t so compelling w/greater morphological complexity. Occam’s razor fits better when there are a large number of forms over which phonological patterns apply.
January 18, 2026 at 2:49 AM
I feel like I’m often compelled by the “everything is stored!” perspective when people are looking at isolating languages but then it just isn’t so compelling w/greater morphological complexity. Occam’s razor fits better when there are a large number of forms over which phonological patterns apply.
Interesting slides! I am curious about your take on languages which differ in morphophonological complexity. You can have a language where each verb might have 3-5 forms, but then a language where each verb might have hundreds of possible forms (very possible with polysynthesis). 1/2
January 18, 2026 at 2:47 AM
Interesting slides! I am curious about your take on languages which differ in morphophonological complexity. You can have a language where each verb might have 3-5 forms, but then a language where each verb might have hundreds of possible forms (very possible with polysynthesis). 1/2
So, success! I used tikz in the end to get it following @rpuggaardrode.bsky.social and your advice. I still can’t get the strikethrough to work though. It’s unclear to me how you set the positioning of where it occurs because it’s not a line style. Thanks!
January 17, 2026 at 10:26 PM
So, success! I used tikz in the end to get it following @rpuggaardrode.bsky.social and your advice. I still can’t get the strikethrough to work though. It’s unclear to me how you set the positioning of where it occurs because it’s not a line style. Thanks!
How did you do multiple linking?
January 17, 2026 at 9:58 PM
How did you do multiple linking?
Yeah, I am avoiding using it because it just isn’t compatible with most other things I need to run/load. I used to use it way back when.
January 17, 2026 at 9:43 PM
Yeah, I am avoiding using it because it just isn’t compatible with most other things I need to run/load. I used to use it way back when.
It’s easier to see how things line up in forest, but it lacks functionality. The matrix you have here just looks like old pstricks stuff. I can never keep track of what is where.
January 17, 2026 at 9:30 PM
It’s easier to see how things line up in forest, but it lacks functionality. The matrix you have here just looks like old pstricks stuff. I can never keep track of what is where.