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UAlbany freshman and her faculty mentor explore the
tonology of an African language
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Kimberly Dryden and Lee Bickmore |
Research is a vital part of the University at
Albany undergraduate experience. Research stimulates
critical thinking, encourages experimentation and
promotes intellectual accomplishment. Abundant
opportunities exist for students to partner with
faculty researchers in a variety of disciplines—from
the arts to the social sciences to the nanoscale
sciences. Here is one such example:
Kimberly Dryden
Baldwinsville, NY
Anthropology major/Africana studies minor
University Scholars program
Professional goals: Peace
Corps, graduate school, archaeologist or
anthropologist specializing in African cultures
Quote:
It was such a
unique experience to be able to do research with
faculty in my freshman year. I appreciated the
everyday application of what I was studying and I am
now excited about being an anthropology major.
Faculty mentor: Lee
Bickmore, Anthropology
Professor Bickmore is a linguistic anthropologist
and phonologist whose research focuses on the
description and analysis of tone or tonology. He
primarily works on the Bantu languages of Africa.
His field work has led to the first published
accounts of the tonology of a number of languages in
eastern and southern Africa. He recently completed a
15-year project which provides a comprehensive
description and analysis of Chilungu, a language
spoken in the Northern Province of Zambia. For the
past eight years, it has been his pleasure to be
involved with the University Scholars program.
Research Project: Phonetic
Measurements of Vowel Length in the Chilungu
Language
In Chilungu, a vowel length can vary due to the
influence of the sound that precedes and follows
that vowel. This study analyzed the precise effects
that preceding and subsequent consonants have on
vowels. The work was accomplished by first measuring
the length of vowels in digitized sound samples and
then logging the results into a database where the
statistical generalizations could then be extracted.
The results were compared to similar studies of
other Bantu languages to determine what
cross-linguistic variation there might be in the
influence of phonetic environment on vowel length.
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