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School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures
Yaron Matras

Professor Yaron Matras

Professor in Linguistics

Phone: (+44) (0)161 275 3975
Email: yaron.matras@manchester.ac.uk

Research specialisation

My main research interests are the interface of grammar and discourse, a functional-pragmatic approach to grammatical categories and linguistic typology, language contact and bilingualism, and anthropological linguistics and dialectology. I have published on deixis, word order variation, ergativity, complementation and coordination, mixed languages, grammatical borrowing and contact-induced grammaticalisation, as well as descriptive, historical and dialectological work on several different languages. I specialise in the linguistics of Romani, languages of the Middle East (Kurdish, Domari, Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, Neo-Aramaic), Germanic languages and German dialects. I have a general interest in sociolinguistic issues, and I have worked on the standardisation of minority languages and issues of language and identity (Kurdish, Romani) and on the functions and structural composition of in-group and secret languages (e.g. Lekoudesch or Jewish cattle-traders jargon, Jenisch and Rotwelsch, Anglo-Romani).

I have led a series of externally-funded research projects on various aspects of contact linguistics, endangered languages and Romani dialectology and morphosyntax. The outcomes of some of these projects can be viewed on the Manchester Language Contact website, on the Romani Linguistics page, and on the online Romani dictionary Romlex.

I have recently completed a textbook on Language Contact, and I am currently working on a descriptive grammar of Domari, the Indic language of the Dom of the Middle East, to appear in the Mouton Grammar Library, and on a book on 'Romani in Britain: The afterlife of a language', to appear with Edinburgh University Press. My book on Markedness and Language Change, co-authored with Viktor Elsík, appeared in 2006 with Mouton publishers. Other major publications include my book Romani: A Linguistic Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2002), my study of Romani grammatical categories from a discourse perspective (Untersuchungen zu Grammatik und Diskurs des Romanes, Harrassowitz, 1994), a grammatical sketch of Low German (co-authored with Gertrud Reershemius, Lincom Europa, 2003), an edited volume (co-edited with April McMahon and Nigel Vincent) on Linguistic Areas (with Palgrave-Macmillan publishers, 2005), a volume (co-edited with Peter Bakker) on The Mixed Language Debate (Mouton, 2003), and several edited and co-edited volumes on Romani linguistics. Together with Jeanette Sakel I have recently edited a collection on Grammatical Borrowing in Cross-Linguistic Perspective (Mouton de Gruyter publishers, 2007).

Research students

I am currently supervising / have supervised the following PhD theses (* = completed):

Ibtissam Al-Othman: Computer mediated communication among Saudi students
Jonathan Morris: Phonetic variation in Welsh-English bilinguals
Rick Davey: Dialect variation in Arabic
Adele Chadwick: Language maintenance in Greater Manchester
Mohamed Fathi Osman: The maintenance of Arabic among immigrants in Manchester
*Barbara Schrammel: Verb morphology and event structure in the dialects of Romani.
*Veronica Schulman: The Romani dialect of Sofades, Karditsa (Greece)
*Heveen Ali Kurdi: The use of discourse markers by Arab learners of English.
*Anne-Marie Thomson: Sociolinguistics and standardisation efforts in Mauritius Creole.
*Sandy Lo: English-Cantonese codeswitching in Hong Kong and the Chinese community of Manchester.
*Chen-Hui Chun: Chinese-Taiwanese codeswitching in the media.
*Anton Tenser: The Northeastern (Baltic-Russian) dialect group in Romani.
*Sirin Tufan: Language convergence in Gostivar Turkish (Macedonia).
*Francesco Goglia: Emerging biligualism among African immigrants in Italy.
*Maryam Shabibi: Grammatical contact phenomena in Khuzestani Arabic.
*Lai Chun-Yen: Pragmatic structure and humour in Chan Tsong.
*Leora Schiff: Variation in modern Hebrew.
*Carmen Rios: Anaphora in Spanish.
Veliyana Chileva: The Romani dialects of Bulgaria.
Abdullah Al-Garni: Variation in southern Saudi dialects
Samantha Truman: Convergence in Finno-Ugric

Selected publications

Authored and co-authored books

Edited and co-edited books (selection)

Academic Journal Papers (selection)

Chapters in edited volumes (selection)

Professional biography

I studied General Linguistics and Arabic at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Comparative and Germanic Linguistics at the University of Tübingen, where I specialised in bilingualism, sociolinguistics, and dialectology as well as in Germanic languages and languages of the Middle East. I completed my M.A. and PhD degrees at Hamburg University, specialising first in the sociolinguistics of Kurdish, then in a functional-typological analysis of Romani. I worked as part-time teaching and research assistant at Hamburg University, and as communications officer for a Romani NGO, before joining the University of Manchester in 1995.

I have been carrying out linguistic fieldwork on various languages and in different places since I was an undergraduate student - much of it on endangered and minority languages: Jewish cattle-traders jargon, Jenisch, Romani and Angloromani, North Frisian, southwestern German dialects, Yiddish, Neo-Aramaic, Kurdish, Ladino, and Domari. I am Editor of the interdisciplinary journal Romani Studies, and editorial board member of the series on Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Typology with Mouton publishers, and on Special Languages with Harrassowitz publishers. I have served as referee for numerous academic journals and for various research funding councils, and as consultant for the Council of Europe, the Open Society Institute and the Next Page Foundation.

Teaching Areas

I teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Language Contact and Romani Linguistics, as well as occasional courses on Sociolinguistics, Language Evolution, Pragmatics, and Dialectology. Together with Eva Schultze-Berndt I also offer a postgraduate research seminar on Language Documentation and Language Contact.

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