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Research areas.

My primary area of research is historical and comparative phonology of the Germanic languages. My research and publication have focused on two main topics. Between 1988 and1994 I concentrated on consonant strength, or so called 'fortis/lenis', a central problem in Germanic phonology and phonetics. I have discussed the phonological content of this feature in the modern standard Germanic languages and examined consonant lenition in German, Danish, and Frisian dialects. Since 1994 my focus has changed to the related topic of consonant shifts in the Germanic languages. I have treated the Germanic consonant shift, the High German shift, and the shifts in Danish and Icelandic in a comparative light. As a result I have developed a theory of consonant shifts. All three of the younger shifts in German, Danish, and Icelandic are to a certain extent repetitions of the first shift in Germanic and all employ the same phonological mechanism. Related to these two topics is the prosodic feature of length in vowels and consonants. Some of my work has discussed diphthongization and monopthongization, the relationship of vowel lengthening in open syllables to consonant strength and the lengthening of consonants, especially the West Germanic gemination in Old English, Old Saxon, and Old High German. I am also interested in other areas of research, including Germanic etymology and the relationship of standard language and dialect.

My teaching areas are historical linguistics, phonology, Germanic linguistics and medieval literature. I have taught the following courses: History of the German language, Introduction to historical linguistics, Introduction to phonology, Introduction to German Linguistics/Structure of the German language, Middle High German, German and Swedish language, German Grammar, Introduction to German literature, Germanic mythology, Survey of medieval German literature, and German for reading knowledge.

Book:

Consonant Strength in Upper German Dialects. NOWELE Supplement Volumes 10. Odense: Odense University Press, 1994.

Edited Book:

Germanic Studies in Honor of Anatoly Liberman. Ed. with Martha Berryman Mayou and Marvin Taylor. North-Western European Language Evolution 31/32. Odense: Odense University Press, 1997.

Articles:

"Consonant Lenition in the Scandinavian Languages." Svenska landsmåloch svenskt folkliv (1993): 7-17.

"Fortis and Lenis in Standard German." Leuvense Bijdragen 83 (1994): 31-45.

"Consonant Lenition in German Dialects." North-Western European Language Evolution 24 (1994): 67-90.

"From Voice to Length in High German Consonants." Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis 2 (1997): 257-80.

"The Correlation of Voice in Germanic." North-Western European Language Evolution 35 (1999): 115-40.

"The Mechanism of Consonant Shifts in Germanic." Yazyk i rechevaya: deyatel 'nost. Language and Speech. Journal of the Linguistic Society of St. Petersburg 2 (1999): 186-94.

"The Icelandic Consonant Shift in its Germanic Context." Arkiv för nordisk filologi 116 (2001): 117-33.

"On the Development of Germanic Consonants: The Danish Shift and the Danish Lenition." Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 124 (2002): 199-232.

Recent presentations.

“Danish and the Development of Germanic Consonants.” Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference-7, Banff, Alberta, 2001.

"Scandinavian with a Southern Accent: Medieval Consonant Changes in Danish." 2001 Medieval and Renaissance Conference, Columbia, SC.

“The Partial Consonant in West Germanic.” Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference-8, Bloomington, IN, 2002.

"Gemination and Lenition in the Middle Periods of the Germanic Languages." Second International Colloquium of the Sonderforschungsbereich 471: Variation and Evolution in the Lexicon. Konstanz, Germany, June 2002.

"The Voicing of Fricatives in West Germanic." Forum for Germanic Language Studies / Society for Germanic Linguistics Joint Conference, London, England, January 2003.

"Der Mechanismus von Lautverschiebungen im Germanischen: Das Zeugnis vom Skandinavischen und vom Hochdeutschen." Phonologischer Wandel in den germanischen Sprachen: Die Lautverschiebungen. Kolloquium des Zentrums für Mittelalterstudien, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany, May 2003.

"Entwicklungstendenzen im germanischen Konsonantismus." Nordeuropa-Institut and Institut für Deutsche Sprache und Linguistik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, 5 June 2003.