Christopher Spahr

Hello. I'm a fifth year PhD candidate in Linguistics at the University of Toronto. My research interests are primarily in theoretical phonology. More specifically, I am interested in the representation of quantity and its relationship to contrast and neutralization, as well as the more general role that contrast plays in phonological neutralization, especially with regards to prosody.

I am particularly interested in quantity of Finno-Ugric languages and dialects, such as Finnish and Estonian, but my interests in matters Finno-Ugric extend beyond phonology, and indeed, beyond linguistics.

You can reach me via e-mail at christopher~DOT~spahr~AT~mail~DOT~utoronto~DOT~ca.

Publications

2014. A contrastive hierarchical account of positional neutralization. The Linguistic Review 31(3-4): 551-585.

2013. Rethinking the morphophonology of Estonian quantity. In Eva-Liina Asu and Pärtel Lippus (eds.) Nordic Prosody: Proceedings of the XIth Nordic Prosody Conference, Tartu 2012. 362-371. Peter Lang Edition: Frankfurt. (proof)

Generals Papers and Theses

2013. Semantics Generals Paper: "A semantic comparison of Finnish taas and uudestaan 'again'".

2012. Phonology Generals Paper: "Positional neutralization in the Contrastive Hierarchy: The case of phonological vowel reduction".

2011. MA Thesis: "Dialectal gemination in Finnish: Phonetics/phonology interplay in moraic theory".

Presentations and Handouts

January 24, 2014. "Prosodic epenthesis and floating vowels in Estonian quantity". OCP11. (handout).

August 15, 2013. "Confronting the European Portuguese low vowel distinction". CRC Phonetics/Phonology Workshop. (handout).

April 3, 2013. "A contrastive hierarchical account of positional neutralization". GLOW36. (handout).

March 17, 2013. "The role of the Contrastive Hierarchy in positional neutralization". Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto Phonology Workshop. (handout).

August 15, 2012. "Rethinking the morphophonology of Estonian quantity". Nordic Prosody XI. (slides, handout).

March 10, 2012. "Floating contrastive features in Estonian: Underspecification and 'palatalization'". Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto Phonology Workshop. (handout).

January 21, 2012. "Phonetics-phonology interplay in moraic theory: Evidence from Finnish dialectal gemination". OCP9. (handout).