My name is Mykel Brinkerhoff and I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Linguistics and the Acting Phonetics Lab Director at the University of Washington. I received my PhD in Linguistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 2025.
My research focuses on the study of sounds in human language, particularly how they are produced, perceived (i.e., phonetics), and how they function and are organized within a language system (i.e., phonology). I am especially interested in the intersection of phonetics and phonology, exploring how physical aspects of speech influence linguistic patterns and vice versa.
I typically use experiemental methods to investigate these topics, including acoustic analysis, articulatory measurements, and perceptual experiments. My work often involves cross-linguistic comparisons to understand universal principles of sound systems as well as language-specific phenomena.
The purpose of this blog is to share my thoughts, experiences, tutorials, and projects related to my work and research in linguistics. I hope to create a space that is both informative and engaging regardless of your background.