For all publications from our lab please see here.

submitted / pre-prints

Kirkham, Sam. accepted with revisions. Discovering dynamical models of speech gestures. Cognitive Science.

Kirkham, Sam, Patrycja Strycharczuk, Rob Davies & Danielle Welburn. 2025. Modelling change in neural dynamics during phonetic accommodation. arXiv:2502.01210. [arXiv]

2025

Strycharczuk, Patrycja, Sam Kirkham, Emily Gorman & Takayuki Nagamine. forthcoming. Dimensionality reduction in lingual articulation of vowels: Evidence from lax vowels in Northern Anglo-English. Language and Speech. [pre-print]

Kirkham, Sam. 2025. Scaling laws for nonlinear dynamical models of articulatory control. JASA Express Letters 5(2): 1-7. [doi] [pdf] [arXiv] [code]

2024

Nance, Claire, Maya Dewhurst, Lois Fairclough, Pamela Forster, Sam Kirkham, Justin Lo, Jessica McMonagle, Takayuki Nagamine, Seren Parkman, Haleema Rabani, Andrea Brink Siem, Danielle Turton & Sarah Wang. 2024. Articulatory phonetics in the Market: Combining public engagement with ultrasound data collection. Linguistics Vanguard 1-12. [doi] [pdf] [code]

Strycharczuk, Patrycja, Sam Kirkham, Emily Gorman & Takayuki Nagamine. 2024. Towards a dynamical model of English vowels: Evidence from diphthongisation. Journal of Phonetics 107(101349): 1-26. [doi] [arXiv] [code]

Nance, Claire & Sam Kirkham. 2024. Producing a smaller sound system: Acoustics and articulation of the subset scenario in Gaelic-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition 27(4): 527-584. [doi] [code]

Friedrichs, Daniel, Monica Lancheros, Sam Kirkham, Lei He, Andrew Clark, Clemens Lutz, Volker Dellwo & Steven Moran. 2024. Temporal co-registration of simultaneous electromagnetic articulography and electroencephalography for precise articulatory and neural data alignment. Proc. Interspeech 2024 3120-3124. [doi] [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam. 2024. Discovering dynamical models of speech using physics-informed machine learning. Proc. ISSP 2024 - 13th International Seminar on Speech Production 177-180. [doi] [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam & Patrycja Strycharczuk. 2024. A dynamic neural field model of vowel diphthongisation. Proc. ISSP 2024 - 13th International Seminar on Speech Production 205-208. [doi] [pdf]

Vaughan-Williams, Katherine, Steven Moran & Sam Kirkham. 2024. Dimensions of structure and variability in the human vocal tract. Proc. ISSP 2024 - 13th International Seminar on Speech Production 274-277. [doi] [pdf]

Moran, Steven, Sam Kirkham, Daniel Friedrichs, David S. Straight & Axel G. Ekström. 2024. Vocal tract proportions and the evolution of speech: New data to answer old questions. Proceedings from FONETIK 2024 109-114. [doi] [pdf]

Friedrichs, Daniel, Axel G. Ekström, Sam Kirkham & Steven Moran. 2024. Anatomical correlates of articulatory ranges of motion: An EMA study. Proceedings from FONETIK 2024 123-128. [doi] [pdf]

Nance, Claire & Sam Kirkham. 2024. Acquiring tongue shape complexity in consonants with multiple articulations. Proc. 5th International Symposium on Applied Phonetics (ISAPh 2024) 65-70. [doi] [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam & Maya Zara. 2024. Intergenerational transmission of laterals in Punjabi-English heritage bilinguals. In: Rajiv Rao (ed.) The Phonetics and Phonology of Heritage Languages. Cambridge University Press, pp. 129-146. [doi] [pdf] [code]

2023

Kirkham, Sam, Patrycja Strycharczuk, Emily Gorman, Takayuki Nagamine & Alan Wrench. 2023. Co-registration of simultaneous high-speed ultrasound and electromagnetic articulography for speech production research. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 942-946. [pdf] [code]

Nance, Claire, Maya Dewhurst, Lois Fairclough, Pamela Forster, Sam Kirkham, Takayuki Nagamine, Danielle Turton & Di Wang. 2023. Acoustic and articulatory characteristics of rhoticity in the North-West of England. Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 3597-3601. [pdf] [code]

2022

Kirkham, Sam & Claire Nance. 2022. Diachronic phonological asymmetries and the variable stability of synchronic contrast. Journal of Phonetics 94(101176): 1-14. [doi] [pdf] [code]

Nance, Claire & Sam Kirkham. 2022. Phonetic typology and articulatory constraints: The realization of secondary articulations in Scottish Gaelic rhotics. Language 98(3): 419-460. [doi] [pdf] [code]

Nance, Claire, Sam Kirkham, Kate Lightfoot & Luke Carroll. 2022. Intonational variation in the North-West of England: The origins of a rising contour in Liverpool. Language and Speech 65(4): 1007-1033. [doi] [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam & Patrycja Strycharczuk. 2022. Tracking the dance of the tongue using ultrasound tongue imaging. Babel: The Language Magazine 37: 8-11. [link] [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam. 2022. Urban communities of practice. In Beatrix Busse and Ingo H. Warnke (eds) Handbuch Sprache im urbanen Raum. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 117-136. [doi]

Kirkham, Sam & Claire Nance. 2022. Phonetics. In: Jonathan Culpeper, Beth Malory, Claire Nance, Daniel Van Olmen, Dimitrinka Atanasova, Sam Kirkham & Aina Casaponsa (eds) Introducing Linguistics. London: Routledge, pp. 3-21. [link]

Nance, Claire & Sam Kirkham. 2022. Phonology. In: Jonathan Culpeper, Beth Malory, Claire Nance, Daniel Van Olmen, Dimitrinka Atanasova, Sam Kirkham & Aina Casaponsa (eds) Introducing Linguistics. London: Routledge, pp. 22-41. [link]

Culpeper, Jonathan, Beth Malory, Claire Nance, Daniel Van Olmen, Dimitrinka Atanasova, Sam Kirkham & Aina Casaponsa (eds). 2022. Introducing Linguistics. London: Routledge. [link]

2021

Kirkham, Sam & Kathleen M. McCarthy. 2021. Acquiring allophonic structure and phonetic detail in a bilingual community: The production of laterals by Sylheti-English bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingualism 25(3): 531-547. [doi] [pdf] [code]

2020

Kirkham, Sam, Danielle Turton & Adrian Leemann. 2020. A typology of laterals in twelve English dialects. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 148(1): EL72-EL76. [doi] [pdf] [code]

Gorman, Emily & Sam Kirkham. 2020. Dynamic acoustic-articulatory relations in back vowel fronting: Examining the effects of coda consonants in two dialects of British English. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 148(2): 724-733. [doi] [pdf]

Nance, Claire & Sam Kirkham. 2020. The acoustics of three-way lateral and nasal palatalisation contrasts in Scottish Gaelic. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 147(4): 2858-2872. [doi] [pdf]

2019

Kirkham, Sam, Claire Nance, Bethany Littlewood, Kate Lightfoot & Eve Groarke. 2019. Dialect variation in formant dynamics: The acoustics of lateral and vowel sequences in Manchester and Liverpool English. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 145(2): 784-794. [doi] [pdf] [code]

Diskin, Chloé, Deborah Loakes, Rosey Billington, Hywel Stoakes, Simón Gonzalez & Sam Kirkham. 2019. The /el/-/æl/ merger in Australian English: Acoustic and articulatory insights. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. [pdf]

2018

Nance, Claire, Sam Kirkham & Eve Groarke. 2018. Studying intonation in varieties of English: Gender and individual variation in Liverpool. In: Natalie Braber & Sandra Jansen (eds) Sociolinguistics in England. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [pdf]

Nance, Claire & Sam Kirkham. 2018. Phonology. In: Jonathan Culpeper, Paul Kerswill, Ruth Wodak, Tony McEnery & Francis Katamba (eds) English Language: Description, Variation and Context. Second edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. [pdf]

2017

Kirkham, Sam & Claire Nance. 2017. An acoustic-articulatory study of bilingual vowel production: Advanced tongue root vowels in Twi and tense/lax vowels in Ghanaian English. Journal of Phonetics 62: 65-81. [doi] [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam. 2017. Ethnicity and phonetic variation in Sheffield English liquids. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 47(1): 17-35. [doi] [pdf]

2016

Kirkham, Sam & Emma Moore. 2016. Constructing social meaning in political discourse: Phonetic variation and verb processes in Ed Miliband’s speeches. Language in Society 45(1): 87-111. [doi] [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam. 2016. Constructing multiculturalism at school: Negotiating tensions in talk about ethnic diversity. Discourse & Society 27(4): 383-400. [doi] [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam & Alison Mackey. 2016. Research, relationships and reflexivity: Reflections on two case studies of language and identity. In: Peter De Costa (ed.) Ethics in Applied Linguistics Research: Language Researcher Narratives. London: Routledge, pp. 103-120. [pdf]

2015

Kirkham, Sam. 2015. Intersectionality and the social meanings of variation: Class, ethnicity, and social practice. Language in Society 44(5): 629-652. [doi] [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam & Jessica Wormald. 2015. Acoustic and articulatory variation in British Asian English liquids. Proceedings of the XVIII International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 1-5. [pdf]

Nance, Claire, Sam Kirkham & Eve Groarke. 2015. Intonational variation in Liverpool English. Proceedings of the XVIII International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 1-5. [pdf]

2013

Kirkham, Sam & Emma Moore. 2013. Adolescence. In: J.K. Chambers & Natalie Schilling (eds) The Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Second edition. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 277-296. [doi] [pdf]

2011

Kirkham, Sam. 2011. The acoustics of coronal stops in British Asian English. Proceedings of the XVII International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 1102-1105. [pdf]

Kirkham, Sam. 2011. Personal style and epistemic stance in classroom discussion. Language and Literature 20(3): 201-217. [doi] [pdf]