Hello! I'm a linguist, interested in theoretical phonology and in the spatial and temporal dimensions of language change. I'm currently a postdoctoral researcher (postdoktor) at Uppsala universitet.
Previously: I was at Cambridge from 2017–2021, as a postdoctoral researcher on the ESRC-funded ‘Tweetolectology’ project and as a teaching associate in language typology. I have a PhD (2018) and MA (2014) in Linguistics from the University of Manchester, and a BS in Physics (2012) from the California Institute of Technology.

I work on various phonological topics (the formation of active classes, the development of phonological rules, sonorant phonology, local and long-distance consonant interactions, the formal structure of phonological representations) and on mathematical models of language change and dialect geography. Uniting these, one of my major current directions is the relationship between geographically-sensitive variation in the structure of related phonological rules and the diachronic pathway of phonologisation.

My PhD thesis, Similarity and representations in sonorant phonology (December 2018) was supervised by Yuni Kim and Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero. The title was a little misleading; the thesis deals with the nature of class formation and phonologisation in synchrony and diachrony, and with the role that parameters like similarity can play in the organisation of processes of analogical generalisation. There's also a subsidiary focus therein on the Turkic languages, in which I have a particular interest. Any day now, I will definitely get around to publishing the individual chapters as papers, but in the meantime you're welcome to read the whole thing, or get in touch if you want to know more.

I maintain an involvement with the ESRC-funded project Investigating the diffusion of morphosyntactic innovations using social media (‘Tweetolectology’), on which I was the RA 2017–2020, with David Willis, Adrian Leemann, and Tamsin Blaxter. Our interest is in the spatial patterning of morphosyntactic variation in British English, Welsh, Norwegian-Swedish-Danish, and Turkish; we're building large, geographically-rich corpora of Twitter posts in those languages, and using them to answer questions about diachrony and diffusion.

Geospatial distributions reflect rates of evolution of features of language
Henri Kauhanen, Deepthi Gopal, Tobias Galla & Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero
Deepthi Gopal
PhD dissertation, University of Manchester. OPEN ACCESS
The structural impact of morphological borrowing and convergence
Deepthi Gopal
MA dissertation, University of Manchester.
Using post-measurement information in state discrimination
Deepthi Gopal & Stephanie Wehner

Correlations between linguistic features are reflected in their geospatial patterning: Introducing the geo-typological Sandwich Conjecture   view slides   NEW!
Deepthi Gopal, Henri Kauhanen, Christopher Kitching, Tobias Galla, & Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero
Correlations between typological features predict their geo-spatial patterning   download  
Deepthi Gopal, Henri Kauhanen, Christopher Kitching, Tobias Galla, & Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero
Variation, gradience & categoricity in the Turkish mid vowels   download  
Deepthi Gopal & Stephen Nichols
Variation, gradience & categoricity in the Turkish mid vowels   download  
Deepthi Gopal & Stephen Nichols
Apparent-time and spatial diffusion in large social-media corpora
David Willis, Deepthi Gopal, Tam Blaxter, & Adrian Leemann
NWAV 48, University of Oregon, Eugene.
Big data for a small language: Mapping variation in Welsh on social media
David Willis, Deepthi Gopal, Tam Blaxter, & Adrian Leemann
ICLaVE 10, Fryske Academy, Leeuwarden.
The rhotic in Jutland Danish
Deepthi Gopal, Michaela Hejná, & Pavel Šturm
Fonologi i Norden 2019, University of Edinburgh.
Geospatial distributions reflect rates of evolution of features of language
Henri Kauhanen, Deepthi Gopal, Tobias Galla, & Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero
Spatial Patterns of Language Evolution (SPLEV), Zürich, Switzerland.
Localising morphosyntactic variation in Welsh Twitter data
David Willis, Deepthi Gopal, Tam Blaxter, & Adrian Leemann
Localising morphosyntactic variation in Welsh Twitter data
David Willis, Deepthi Gopal, Tam Blaxter, & Adrian Leemann
NWAV 47, New York University.
Urbanisation and morphosyntactic variation in Twitter data
David Willis, Deepthi Gopal, Tam Blaxter, & Adrian Leemann
Urban Language Research · Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz.
Localising morphosyntactic variation in Twitter data
Tam Blaxter, Deepthi Gopal, Adrian Leemann & David Willis
2018 Annual Meeting of the LAGB · University of Sheffield.
Sonority and the typology of Turkic onset obstruentisation
Deepthi Gopal
26th Manchester Phonology Meeting, University of Manchester.
Sonority and the typology of Turkic onset obstruentisation
Deepthi Gopal
Old World Conference in Phonology 15, University College London.
Spatial distributions of linguistic features are determined by the interaction of
endogenous and exogenous dynamics
Henri Kauhanen, Deepthi Gopal, Tobias Galla, & Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero
Perceptual boundaries and features in Chilean Spanish
Fernanda Barrientos & Deepthi Gopal
25th Manchester Phonology Meeting, University of Manchester.
Modelling similarity-driven phonological generalisations
Deepthi Gopal, Henri Kauhanen & Stephen Nichols
4th Workshop on Sound Change, University of Edinburgh.
Sonorant-conditioned mid vowel lowering in Turkish
Deepthi Gopal & Stephen Nichols
Aspiration 'dissimilation' in Tangkhul Naga prefixation
Deepthi Gopal
2016 Annual Meeting on Phonology, University of Southern California.
Aspiration 'dissimilation' in Tangkhul Naga prefixation
Deepthi Gopal
2016 Annual Meeting of the LAGB · University of York.
Sonorant-conditioned mid vowel lowering in Turkish
Deepthi Gopal & Stephen Nichols
24th Manchester Phonology Meeting, University of Manchester.
Nasal-lateral assimilations as Agreement-by-Correspondence
Deepthi Gopal
Nasal-lateral interactions: typology and structure
Deepthi Gopal
2015 Annual Meeting on Phonology, University of British Columbia.
Markedness and syllable contact in Kazakh internal sandhi
Deepthi Gopal
23rd Manchester Phonology Meeting, University of Manchester.

University of Cambridge
BA dissertation supervision

University of Cambridge
Li17 Language typology
As course coordinator, lecturer & supervisor
University of Cambridge
Li4 History and varieties of English
As lecturer & supervisor
University of Cambridge
Li5 Linguistic theory
As supervisor
University of Cambridge
Li11 Historical linguistics
As supervisor

University of Cambridge
Li13 History of English
As supervisor
University of Cambridge
Li4 History and varieties of English
As supervisor

University of Cambridge
Li11 Historical linguistics
As lecturer

University of Manchester
LELA 20011 Phonology 1
As TA
University of Manchester
LELA 20342 Experimental Phonetics
As TA
University of Manchester
LELA 20281 The Logic of English
As TA
I was born in Darlington, England, in late 1991. I like early-twentieth-century poetry, typography, birdwatching, Georgian polyphony, and very small cups of coffee. There is little actual phonetic realisation of stress in my name, but it's probably in there somewhere.

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