Kerri-Ann Butcher

I’m a postdoc on the Dialect and Heritage Project at the University of Leeds, where I am conducting spatial analyses of dialect transmission and the adoption/retention of linguistic variants by mobile speakers in England. I am also currently developing new computational methods for drawing isoglosses.

My interests broadly include sociolinguistics, dialectometry and the phonetics-phonology interface, but more specifically vowel mergers and instrumental/quantitative approaches to sound change that are able to integrate social factors as predictors.

My PhD work looked at the perception and production of vocalic mergers in East Anglian English, focussing on how phonetic and/or individual variation might influence phonological change.

I also hold a College Research Associate position at King’s College, Cambridge.