Busy, but alive.

Man, that was a mouthful.

So, I just got back from the above-titled workshop… It. Was. AWESOME!!! (Picture me shrilling the word ‘awesome’)

I sat through talks on:

• comparative phonetic variation in Korean; 
• slit fricatives in Cape Breton English; 
• variation in nasalance scores using the Nasometer 6200 versus the Nasometer 6450, which was pretty interesting; 
• variation in Dhochi (a Dholuo ludling) and reversal languages, which was incredibly engaging because of the OT analysis that was brought forth at the end; 
• phonemic identity in the contrastive hierarchy; 
• aspirated fricatives, which was fascinating (I look forward to the generals paper in December); 
• and lastly, the Parallel Structures Model, which was very technical but thought-provoking nonetheless.

After the presentations we headed back to the department lounge to break for lunch. During the walk back I had a really cool talk with a department graduate named Sophia on the phonetic analysis of word-final devoicing in Russian. She was really cool to talk to :)

During the lunch I was able to meet Dr. Peter Avery, who worked with my advising professor on a paper about underspecification, though we only talked about the food that was being served haha.

I also got to meet with a Dr. Yoonjung Kang. We talked about Korean phonology, and then I told her about my interests in Japanese, which then lead her to suggest a very recent article on the effect of Lyman’s law on Japanese loanwords (AHHHHHHHHHH!). I had to use every inch of my strength to contain my excitement when she told me about it haha.

Unfortunately, I had to leave early so I said my thanks to Dr. Kochetov and Dr. Rice and left. There will be more workshops in the future :).

Today is going to be hectic… NCSC 4-on-1’s at 2:15, venue booking meeting at 3, orientation 1-on-1’s at 6:30, and orientation video meeting at 8:00. Lots to do, lots to do.