Míša Hejná

The Centre of Voice Studies at Aarhus University

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July 2022 saw the approval of a new research unit at Aarhus University – the Centre of Voice Studies. Why a centre of voice studies? Why now? And who’s behind it?

First, some note on the voice. The vast majority of human beings communicate with the use of sounds coming out of their bodies. Sounds produced by the vocal tract are particularly relevant. But sounds are far from limited to human communication. Vocal variation is everywhere around us, whether we communicate with human or non-human animals.

There is no doubt that the voice provides interlocutors with a plethora of meaningful information. This information is linked to our bodies as well as our cultures. Just from a single word, the hearer … ↪

Experimental and Edgy Linguistics Somethingness: Sexy Syntax, Phenomenal Phonology, Phonetic Phenomenology, and Not Giving a Fuck

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 When Peter Bakker approached me to write a review of the first issue of Some Islands. A Journal of Linguistics and Art , edited by Joshua Nash, he made it quite clear why he approached me, of all people: “you do art and linguistics. Would you like to review this for Lingoblog? It is about art and linguistics”. When I saw the title page of this new experimental journal, it was difficult to say no. But little did I know what I was letting myself in for.  

Why islands? Why a chair? Why some islands? And why this sort of chair?  

 As I read on, I decided to stay open-minded, sit in it for a while and … ↪

The menstrual cycle in linguistics?

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When people find out I’m a phonetician who happens to be interested – among other things – also in the potential effects of the menstrual cycle on language and speech, they typically present me with fairly excited reactions. Why would a linguist be interested in anything to do with the menstrual cycle? I’ll attempt to answer this question in this blog entry, with the caveat that my research focuses on phonetics and phonology, i.e. sounds and not, for instance, word order.

Larynx as a sexual organ

The larynx has been called a secondary sexual organ (e.g. Abitbol et al. 1989; Amir & Biron-Shental 2004; Collins & Missing 2003; Hall 1995; Henton & Bladon 1985). This is because the larynx does … ↪

Phon-phon for phun

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You may have heard about an entity that exists at Aarhus University, titled Phon-phon for phun. What is it? Why is it? Should you care about it? Let me explain.

Phon-phon for phun stands for “Phonetics and phonology for fun” and is the unofficial but very commonly used name of one of the official research groups of interest to those who are associated with the programme of Language, Linguistics, Communication, and Cognition. The research group was initiated in spring 2017 and officially established as a research group in autumn 2017. We’ve got our own website, which you are very welcome to explore: https://soundsoflanguageandspeech.wordpress.com/

What is it we do, exactly? Well, we do all sorts of things because we’re interested … ↪