Bert Remijsen's page

· affiliation and contact details · research interests · teaching · publications · pictures ·

Bert Remijsen's page
picture of the village Fafanlap (Misool Island, Raja Ampat archipelago, Indonesia)

Affiliation and contact details

I am Research Fellow (postdoc) at Linguistics and English Language, University of Edinburgh, thanks to funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council.

Email: bert@ling.ed.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)131 650 6657
Fax: +44 (0)131 650 6883 Address:
Linguistics and English Language
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
The University of Edinburgh
Dugald Stewart Building (room 2.22)
3 Charles Street
Edinburgh EH8 9AD
United Kingdom

Main research interests

My main research interest is suprasegmental systems, that is, the way languages make use of pitch, duration, voice quality, loudness, and to some extent vowel quality. The big question that drives a lot of my research in this area is of a typological nature: 'What kinds of suprasegmental or prosodic systems occur - or can occur - in the languages of the world?' I look for languages that are typologically unusual and complex in this respect, and examine them by means of phonological and phonetic analysis.
In the past I have worked on languages that have stress and tone as independent phonological distinctions in their sound systems. These days I focus on the prosodic systems of Shilluk and of dialects of Dinka, both Nilotic languages that use prosody intensively. If you want to know more, have a look at the project webpage.
A second research interest is the documentation of the Matbat language. Matbat is located on the fuzzy boundary between the Austronesian and the Papuan languages. It has fewer than 600 speakers. My long-term goal is to arrive at an overall documentation of the language. I have a long way left to go here. Sound examples illustrating the word-prosodic systems of Matbat are available on the PIL page (click through to Languages).

Teaching

Phonetic fieldwork
A two-hour lecture, in the context of the Workshop on Teaching linguistic fieldwork and sustainability (SOAS, 4 December 2009). You can download the materials here (updated versions, uploaded Monday 7 of December 2009):
presentation first hour (pdf format)
presentation second hour (pdf format)
dataset 1 (compressed file)
dataset 2 (compressed file)
dataset 3 (compressed file)
dataset 4 (compressed file)
I am not doing any teaching at University of Edinburgh in 2009-2010. In previous years, I have taught Advanced Prosody (together with Mariko Sugahara / Alice Turk), Historical Linguistics, Introduction to Statistics (together with Cathy Sotillo), Linguistics 2 - Phonology and Instrumental Phonetics modules, Hons foundation course in Phonetics and Phonology (with Satsuki Nakai and Alice Turk), Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology (MSc), and Linguistic fieldwork and language description.

I use the signal processing package Praat, both for research and teaching. My Praat scripts page includes a presentation on the use of Praat for research on prosody, and several scripts that may be of interest to other users.

Publications

Appeared

B. Remijsen (2001) Word-prosodic systems of Raja Ampat languages. PhD diss. Leiden University - LOT Dissertation Series vol. 49.
[Available for order/download. Reviewed by Graham Thurgood in Oceanic Linguistics 43(2), 522-524]

B. Remijsen (2001) Dialectal Variation in the Lexical Tone System of Ma`ya. Language and Speech 44(4), 473-499.

B. Remijsen (2002) Lexically contrastive stress accent and lexical tone in Ma`ya. In C. Gussenhoven & N. Warner (eds.) Laboratory Phonology VII. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter (585-614).

Remijsen, B. & V.J. van Heuven (2003) On the categorical nature of intonational contrasts, an experiment on boundary tones in Dutch. In J. van de Weijer, V.J. van Heuven, & H.G. van der Hulst (eds.) The Phonological Spectrum - Volume II: Suprasegmental structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (225-246).

T. Hohe & B. Remijsen (2003) Peacemaker for religious conflicts? The value of Pela relationships in Ambon. In M. Ramstedt (ed.) Hinduism in Modern Indonesia. Routledge Curzon (126-143).

E. Lindström & B. Remijsen (2005) Aspects of the prosody of Kuot, a language where intonation ignores stress. Linguistics 43(4), 839-870.

B. Remijsen & V.J. van Heuven (2005) Stress, tone, and discourse prominence in the Curacao dialect of Papiamentu. Phonology 22(2), 205-235.

B. Remijsen & V.J. van Heuven (eds.) (2006) Between Stress and Tone. Guest-edited thematic issue of Phonology 23(2).

B. Remijsen (2007) Lexical tone in Magey Matbat. In V.J. van Heuven & E. van Zanten (eds.) Prosody in Indonesian languages. Utrecht: LOT Occasional Series vol. 9.

B. Remijsen & L. Gilley (2008) Why are three-level vowel length systems rare? Insights from Dinka (Luanyjang dialect). Journal of Phonetics 36(2), 318-344.

B. Remijsen, F. Martis, & R. Severing (2008) The intonational system of Papiamentu (Curaçao variant). In N. Faraclas, R. Severing, & C. Weijer (eds.) Linguistic Studies on Papiamentu . Willemstad: Fundashon pa Planifikashon di Idioma.

B. Remijsen & D.R. Ladd (2008) The tone system of the Luanyjang dialect of Dinka. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 29(2), 173-213.

B. Remijsen & C.A. Manyang (2009) Luanyjang Dinka. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 39(1), 113-124. Available for free from the JIPA website - I recommend the pdf version with embedded sound files.

D.R. Ladd, B. Remijsen & C.A. Manyang (2009) On the distinction between regular and irregular inflectional morphology: evidence from Dinka. Language 85(3), 659-670.

To appear / submitted

B. Remijsen (to appear) Nouns and verbs in Magey Matbat. To appear in M. Klamer & M. Ewing (eds.) Typological and Areal Analyses: Contributions from East Nusantara. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Click here for a preliminary version.

B. Remijsen, F. Martis, & R. Severing (to appear) The intonational system of Papiamentu (Curaçao dialect). To appear in S.-A. Jun (ed.) Prosodic Typology II: The Phonology and Intonation of Phrasing . Oxford University Press.

E. van Zanten, R. Stoel & B. Remijsen (submitted) Stress types in Austronesian languages. In R.W.N. Goedemans and H.G. van der Hulst (eds.) Stress Patterns of the World: Data. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

B. Remijsen (submitted) Lexical tone in Magey Matbat. Submitted for publication in a volume edited by Mark Donohue. Click here for a preliminary version.

Pictures

Click here to see some pictures of the Raja Ampat archipelago. It is a beautiful place.

bert@ling.ed.ac.uk
Last change: December 7, 2009

Publications
Appeared
B. Remijsen (2001)	Word-prosodic systems of Raja Ampat languages. PhD diss. Leiden University - LOT Dissertation Series vol. 49. [Available for order/download. Reviewed by Graham Thurgood in Oceanic Linguistics 43(2), 522-524]
B. Remijsen (2001)	Dialectal Variation in the Lexical Tone System of Ma`ya. Language and Speech 44(4), 473-499.
B. Remijsen (2002)	Lexically contrastive stress accent and lexical tone in Ma`ya. In C. Gussenhoven & N. Warner (eds.) Laboratory Phonology VII. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter (585-614).
Remijsen, B. & V.J. van Heuven (2003)	On the categorical nature of intonational contrasts, an experiment on boundary tones in Dutch. In J. van de Weijer, V.J. van Heuven, & H.G. van der Hulst (eds.) The Phonological Spectrum - Volume II: Suprasegmental structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (225-246).
T. Hohe & B. Remijsen (2003)	Peacemaker for religious conflicts? The value of Pela relationships in Ambon. In M. Ramstedt (ed.) Hinduism in Modern Indonesia. Routledge Curzon (126-143).
E. Lindström & B. Remijsen (2005)	Aspects of the prosody of Kuot, a language where intonation ignores stress. Linguistics 43(4), 839-870.
B. Remijsen & V.J. van Heuven (2005)	Stress, tone, and discourse prominence in the Curacao dialect of Papiamentu. Phonology 22(2), 205-235.
B. Remijsen & V.J. van Heuven (eds.) (2006)	Between Stress and Tone. Guest-edited thematic issue of Phonology 23(2).
B. Remijsen (2007)	Lexical tone in Magey Matbat. In V.J. van Heuven & E. van Zanten (eds.) Prosody in Indonesian languages. Utrecht: LOT Occasional Series vol. 9.
B. Remijsen & L. Gilley (2008)	Why are three-level vowel length systems rare? Insights from Dinka (Luanyjang dialect). Journal of Phonetics 36(2), 318-344.
B. Remijsen, F. Martis, & R. Severing (2008)	The intonational system of Papiamentu (Curaçao variant). In N. Faraclas, R. Severing, & C. Weijer (eds.) Linguistic Studies on Papiamentu . Willemstad: Fundashon pa Planifikashon di Idioma.
B. Remijsen & D.R. Ladd (2008)	The tone system of the Luanyjang dialect of Dinka. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 29(2), 173-213.
B. Remijsen & C.A. Manyang (2009)	Luanyjang Dinka. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 39(1), 113-124. Available for free from the JIPA website - I recommend the pdf version with embedded sound files.
D.R. Ladd, B. Remijsen & C.A. Manyang (2009)	On the distinction between regular and irregular inflectional morphology: evidence from Dinka. Language 85(3), 659-670.
To appear / submitted
B. Remijsen (to appear)	Nouns and verbs in Magey Matbat. To appear in M. Klamer & M. Ewing (eds.) Typological and Areal Analyses: Contributions from East Nusantara. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Click here for a preliminary version.
B. Remijsen, F. Martis, & R. Severing (to appear)	The intonational system of Papiamentu (Curaçao dialect). To appear in S.-A. Jun (ed.) Prosodic Typology II: The Phonology and Intonation of Phrasing . Oxford University Press.
E. van Zanten, R. Stoel & B. Remijsen (submitted)	Stress types in Austronesian languages. In R.W.N. Goedemans and H.G. van der Hulst (eds.) Stress Patterns of the World: Data. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
B. Remijsen (submitted)	Lexical tone in Magey Matbat. Submitted for publication in a volume edited by Mark Donohue. Click here for a preliminary version.