My research focusses on dialects of English and Scots in Britain and Ireland (especially those in north-east England, southern Scotland and Ulster) from synchronic and diachronic perspectives. I am particularly interested in:

• The synchronic and diachronic phonologies of English and Scots from the Old English period to the present day
• Dialects of English and Scots in Britain and Ireland, especially traditional varieties
• The development of English in Ulster in the context of contact between English, Scots and Irish
• My native English dialect of southwest Tyrone (which I have been recording for the last 20 years)
• The phonological history of English in north-east England
• The traditional Northumbrian dialect of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne (see here)
  
• The linguistic analysis of dialect in writing, especially dialect literature from Tyneside in the 19th century
• Phonological mergers and their reversal, especially the 'NURSE-NORTH Merger' in Tyneside English and the 'MEAT-MATE Merger' in Mid-Ulster English
• Lexical variation in dialects of English and Scots (including local names for terrestrial isopods)
  

The links below give further information (see also Publications and Presentations).