Stephen Laker
Lecturer
Address:
Samuel Alexander Building (Office N.G.15)
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL
Phone: +44-(0)161-275 3198
E-mail: stephen.laker@manchester.ac.uk
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:30-12:30
Research specialisation
Historical and comparative linguistics
Language change
Language contact
Dialectology
Phonology
Germanic languages
Celtic languages
Publications
Books (edited):
Forthc.: Problems of English historical phonology [= Anglia 126(3)]. (With Robert Mailhammer).
2007: Advances in Old Frisian philology [= Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 64]. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. xvi + 494pp. (With Rolf H. Bremmer Jr & Oebele Vries.)
Articles:
Forthc.: 'Hypercorrection and the /w/ ~ /v/ interchange'. In a Festschrift.
Submitted: 'An explanation for the early phonemicisation of a voice contrast in English fricatives'. In Markku Filppula & Juhani Klemola (eds.), Re-evaluating the Celtic hypothesis [= special issue of English Language and Linguistics].
2008: 'Changing views about Anglo-Saxons and Britons'. In Henk Aertsen & Bart Veldhoen (eds.), Six papers from the 28th Symposium on Medieval Studies held at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on 15 December 2006. Leiden: Leiden University Department of English, 1-38.
2008: 'The English negative comparative particle'. Transactions of the Philological Society 106/1, 1-28.
2007: 'Palatalization of velars: A major link of Old English and Old Frisian'. In Rolf H. Bremmer Jr, Stephen Laker & Oebele Vries. (eds.), Advances in Old Frisian Philology. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 165-184.
2005: 'Earliest Middle English ne "than"', Notes & Queries 52/2, 11-12. (With Rolf H. Bremmer Jr.)
2003: 'PGMC. +drepa-, G treffen "TO HIT"', Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia 8, 103-110. (With Robert Mailhammer and Theo Vennemann.)
2002: 'Zur Vergleichspartikel was im Bairischen', Sprachwissenschaft 27/4, 397-416.
2002: 'An explanation for the changes kw-, hw- > xw- in the English dialects', In Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola & Heli Pitkänen (eds.), The Celtic Roots of English, Joensuu: Joensuu University Press, 183-198.
Reviews:
In press: Iyeiri, Yoko (ed.). 2005. Aspects of English Negation. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Word.
2006: Dossena, Marina and Roger Lass (eds.). 2004. Methods and Data in English Historical Dialectology. Bern: Peter Lang. Historical Sociolinguistics and Sociohistorical Linguistics 6.
2003: Minkova, Donka. 2003. Alliteration and Sound Change in Early English. (= Cambridge Studies in Language 101.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. LinguistList 14.2625.
Papers read at conferences:
2008: 'Investigating Celtic influence on English phonology'. Langwidge Sandwidge, University of Manchester (14 October 2008).
2008: 'Quantity changes and doubling of consonants in Medieval English'. Triangle Conference, University of Manchester (27 Sept 2008).
2008: 'An explanation for the early phonemicisation of a voice contrast in English fricatives'. International Conference of English Historical Linguistics, University of Munich. Workshop: Problems in the historical phonology of English. (29 Nov 2008).
2007: 'Quantity changes in Medieval English'. 4th Indo-European Colloquium Leiden-Münster, University of Leiden, 7-8 May 2007. (8 May 2007)
2006: 'How British are the English?'. Annual English Philology Symposium, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 15 December 2006.
2006: 'Explaining changes in medieval northern English phonology'. DELS-1, [= Directions in English Language Studies], University of Manchester, 6-8 April 2006. (8 April 2008)
2006: 'Standardisierung und Hybridisierung im Norden Englands'. DGfS-28 annual conference [= Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft], University of Bielefeld, 22-24 February 2006. (22 Feb 2006)
2005: 'Palatalization in Old English and Old Frisian'. Frisian Philologists Congress, Leeuwarden, 14-16 December 2005. (16 Dec 2005)
2005: 'Dating and interpreting changes in medieval northern English phonology'. MESS-4, [= Fourth Medieval English Studies Symposium], University of Poznan, 27-28 November 2005. (28 Nov 2005)
2005: 'Palatalization in Old English and Old Frisian'. SHEL-4 [= Studies in the History of the English Language], Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, 30 Sept.-2 Oct 2005. (1 Oct 2005)
2004: 'On the origin of the English negative comparative particle'. Studies in the History of the English Language 3, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 6-7 May 2004. (6 May 2004)
2003: 'The geography of the change kw-, hw- > xw- in English dialects'. Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference 9, SUNY Buffalo, 25-27 April 2003. (26 April 2003)
2001: 'An explanation for the changes kw-, hw- > xw- in the English dialects'. An International Colloquium on Early Contacts between English and Celtic Languages, University of Joensuu Research Station, Mekrijärvi, Finland, 24-26 August 2001. (25 Aug 2001)
Professional biography
Education:
MA (Munich, 2002) Major: German Linguistics; Minors: Middle Eastern Languages; English Philology
PhD (Leiden, expected 2009) in Linguistics
Membership:
International Society for the Linguistics of English
Philological Society
Society for Germanic Linguistics
Vereniging van Oudgermanisten
Yorkshire Dialect Society
Other activities:
Organiser of the weekly Linguistics and Language Studies Seminar Series
Teaching Areas:
Historical linguistics, Sociolinguistics, English dialects, Old English