George Bailey
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

George is a Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics, having originally joined the department in 2018 as a Lecturer in Phonetics and Phonology. His research interests lie in variationist sociolinguistics, with specific interests in sociophonetics, theories of sound change, and dialectology. He is also interested in articulatory phonetics, and the use of experimental and statistical techniques to answer questions about sound change and the representation of phonetic and phonological knowledge.

Career

• Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics
  University of York (2024–)
  
• Lecturer in Sociolinguistics
  University of York (2021–)
• Lecturer in Phonetics and Phonology
  University of York (2018-)
• PhD in Linguistics
  University of Manchester (2015-18)
• MA in Linguistics
  University of Manchester (2014-15)
• BA in Linguistics
  University of Manchester (2011-14)

Departmental roles

• Careers and employability coordinator
• Member of the Data Science and Statistics Committee

Teaching

Undergraduate

Currently:

LAN00009C Phonetics and Phonology

LAN00002H Advanced Topics in Language Variation and Change

Previously:

LAN00058I Linguistics as Data Science

LAN00009I Acoustic Phonetics & Phonological Analysis

LAN00013H Advanced Topics in Phonetics & Phonology

Postgraduate

Currently:

LAN00057M Advanced Topics in Language Variation and Change

LAN00088M Language Variation and Change

Previously:

LAN00091M Phonetics & Phonology

Research

Overview

My research primarily lies at the intersection between sociophonetics, phonological theory, and language variation and change. I also have a keen interest in dialectology, particularly the dialects spoken in the North of England, and the mechanisms by which these dialects change over time.. I also use a range of quantitative methods in my research, and more recently have been exploring articulatory and experimental methods such as ultrasound tongue imaging in order to address questions regarding pathways of sound change and the representation of phonetic and phonological information.

Interests

• Language variation and change
• Sociophonetics
• Articulatory phonetics
• Dialectology and geospatial analysis
• Phonological theory
• Quantitative methods

Grants

• University of York Research Priming. 2019. From swallowing to speech to singing: investigating the vocal tract using electromagnetic articulography and ultrasound. 
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). 2015-2018. ‘Variation and change in Northern English velar nasals: Production and perception’. North West Doctoral Training Centre PhD studentship.

External activities

Invited talks and conferences

• 2021 - Computational approaches to British English dialectology. Invited plenary talk at the Manchester Forum in Linguistics.
• 2020 - The past, present (and future?) of English dialects. Invited talk at the Lancaster University Phonetics Lab Group.
• 2019 - Sound change on the shtreets of Manchester. Invited talk at the University of Warwick Centre for Applied Linguistics Seminar Series
• 2019 - [ʃ]tranger things have happened: Retraction in (str) and (stj) clusters in Manchester English. Invited talk at the Glasgow University Laboratory of Phonetics.
• 2018 - 'When sound change isn’t led by social change: The case of Northern English (ng)'
  The Philological Society meeting on 'Language change in its socio-historical context', University of Sheffield
• 2018 - ‘All paths lead to [ʃ]: Varying sibilant articulation and s-retraction in Manchester English’
  The University of Manchester Linguistics and English Language Research Seminar
• 2016 - ‘Regional variation in 140 characters: Mapping geospatial tweets’ 
  The Workshop on Using Twitter for Linguistic Research, University of Kent
  

Conference presentations

• For a full list of recent conference presentations, please see George's personal website