CU Phonetics Lab

Research in the CU Phonetics Lab uses phonetic and psycholinguistic experimental methods to investigate systematic variation in the sound properties of speech and the perceptual and communicative consequences of such variation. We are particularly interested in ways in which that variation is constrained or conditioned by communicative or representational factors.

Areas of investigation include:

  • phonological neighborhood-conditioned variation (and confusability-conditioned variation more generally)
  • listener-directed and clear speech
  • coarticulation, particularly nasal coarticulation
  • perception of coarticulation, sub-phonemic detail
  • phonetic imitation and its communicative consequences
  • communicative influences in sound change
  • acoustics of contrastive and non-contrastive nasality cross-linguistically

You can read more about some of this work on my research page. In addition, members of the lab pursue a variety of other projects shaped by their individual interests. You can read more about current and recent research from lab members below.

Current undergraduate or graduate students at CU who would like to become involved in this work, e.g., as a volunteer research assistant, can send email to rebecca.scarborough@colorado.edu or stop by the lab (LBB 142) during Dr. Scarborough’s office hours. You're also invited to attend one of our bi-weekly PhRoG (Phonetics Research Group) meetings!

If you are local and would like to participate in one of our studies as a subject, please send an email to cuphonetics@gmail.com. The lab is located in the Lucile Berkeley Buchanan building (LBB 142).

Prospective students

I am happy to consider advising MA and PhD students with interests that intersect with work being done in the lab. While you are welcome to reach out to me directly with questions or to introduce yourself, all applications to our graduate programs are made through the Graduate School at CU and all admissions decisions are made by a departmental admissions committee.

Current Lab Members

Dr. Rebecca Scarborough

Lab Director

(pictured here as a grad student)

Izzy Altman

PhD student

Jaimie Jettmar

MA student

She loves everything to do with sounds and sound analysis! They work on Zapotec of San Bartolomé Quialana, specifically to create the first phonemic description of the language.

PhD Alums

Justin Bai

PhD 2025

Going to great lengths: Contrastive hyperarticulation of vowel duration in English

Jonnia Torres Carolan

PhD 2025

Bridging community-centered research strategies with phonetics and phonology: an analysis of breathy+consonant sequences in Hidatsa

Alyssa Strickler

PhD 2023

Synchronic sound change as a unique look at representation in /aɪ/ raising in Fort Wayne, Indiana

PhD 2020

Phonetic convergence and dialect change in Nanjing, China

Ph.D. 2018

Perception of vowel nasality contrast in Brazilian Portuguese

Maha Foster

PhD 2016

Visual perception of Arabic Emphatics and Gutturals

Kate Phelps Ridgeway

PhD 2016

Phonetic training strategies for non-native speech perception

PhD 2015

On the acoustic and perceptual features of vowel nasality

David Harper

PhD 2014

Perceptual factors in the evolution of Spanish approximants

PhD 2012

Similarity and Enhancement: Nasality from Moroccan Arabic Pharyngeals and Nasals

PhD 2010

Intonation and prosody in Lakhota

Jeff Stebbins

PhD 2010

Usage frequency and articulatory reduction in Vietnamese Tonogenesis

MA Alums

Taylor Cassiani, MA 2025

The “Autistic Accent”: Can People Really Guess if Someone is Autistic Based on How They Speak?

Chelsea Stencel, MA 2025

Neurodiversity and phonetic imitation

Gemini Yizhe Zhang, MA 2025

Irregular Tonal Patterns Beyond Standard Mandarin Correspondences in the Fuyang Dialect

Jackie Haller, MA 2025
Anushri Narayan, MA 2024

Testing a Place-of-Articulation Double Phoneme Boundary in English-Tamil Bilinguals

Peyton Cameron, MA 2024

An Analysis of The Phonological Loanword Process of English Technological Words into French

Evi Judge, MA 2023

The thats you say

Erin Yusko, MA 2022

Cross-Language Phonological Influence in Spanish-English Code-Switching

Rebecca Wheeler, MA 2021

Perception of foreigner-directed speech

Aleese Block, MA 2018

Acoustic cues in the production and perception of Norwegian vowel quantity

Yuan Chai, MA 2017

Predicting discrimination accuracy by assimilation pattern: how do Mandarin speakers discriminate English vowels?

Fahad Alrashed, MA 2015

The effect of the post-nasal consonant on the overlapping between the nasal and the vowel in Saudi Arabic

Shuang Liu, MA 2015

Listener-directed tone hyperarticulation: the effects of noise and hearing loss on Mandarin tone production

Lily Schafer, MA 2015

Phonological variation in Mexico City Jewish Spanish

Hong Zhang, MA 2015

Production and acoustics of creaky nasal vowels

Stephanie Landblom, MA 2013

Listener adaptation to non-native speech and the limits of its generalization

Jen-ching Kao, MA 2009

The role of Mandarin lexical tones and segments: Word recognition in context

Will Styler, MA 2008

Establishing the nature of context in speaker vowel space normalization