My research is in phonology, investigated through in-depth fieldwork on individual languages and using the data to analyze theoretical and typological topics. I have also collaborated with researchers in both phonetics and psycholinguistics. My main interests are long-distance harmony processes and tone.
I primarily work on African languages, specializing in Heiban (Kordofanian) languages of Sudan and Semitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea. I have also worked on Kwa languages and worked with speakers of Somali and Bari.
In Semitic, I have studied the phonetics and phonology of ejectives and guttural consonants, featural affixation (palatalization and labialization) and reduplication. The analysis of the distribution of ejective consonants led to the development, with Rachel Walker, of the Agreement-by-Correspondence theory applied to consonant harmony; the language Chaha featured prominently in that work. Other Semitic languages I have worked on include Muher, Endegen, Tigre and Tigrinya.
My research on the Kordofanian Heiban language, Moro, was funded by a National Science Foundation grant. With colleagues, we investigated the distribution of tone and its interaction with syllable structure, affix order and and intonation. Other topics included vowel harmony, dissimilation, ideophones, and morpho-syntax, including wh-questions, case and clausal structure. A co-authored grammar of Moro with Peter Jenks, Angelo Naser and Elyasir Julima will be published with Language Science Press.
I am currently working on two Heiban (Kordofanian) languages of Sudan: Rere (also known as Koalib), with Titus Kunda and Tira with Himidan Hassen and colleagues Peter Jenks, Nina Hagen Kaldhol and Mark Simmons
A Grammar of Thetogovela Moro (co-authored with Peter Jenks, Elyasir Julima and Angelo Naser). To appear. Language Science Press
Prosody and information structure
In addition to word order and focus marking, tone languages can alter pitch range and tone spreading patterns to express topic, focus and question formation. I have worked on this topic in Moro, Tira and Rere, and am now exploring this in Gua. I co-edited a book on this topic.
Akinlabi, Akin, Sampson Korsah, Abdul Razak Sulemana and Sharon Rose (eds.). 2025. Cross-disciplinary approaches to information structure in Niger-Congo languages. Language Science Press.
Kaldhol, Nina Hagen, Sharon Rose & Mark Simmons. 2025. Prosody of topic and focus in Tira. In Akinbiyi Akinlabi, Sampson Korsah, Abdul Razak Sulemana and Sharon Rose (eds.) Cross-disciplinary approaches to information structure in Niger-Congo languages. Language Science Press, pp. 51-82.
Chai, Yuan, Titus Kubri Kajo Kunda, Alejandro Rodríguez & Sharon Rose. 2022. The prosody of declaratives and questions in Rere. In Haruo Kubuzono, Junko Ito & Armin Mester (eds.) Prosody and Prosodic Interfaces. Oxford University Press.
Perception of musical pitch by speakers of tone languages - with Sarah Creel, Michael Obiri-Yeboah, Samuel Akinbo, Samuel Asitanga and Yaya Yadoma. We are investigating whether speakers of African tone languages show a musical melody pitch processing advantage, as has been reported for East Asian languages such as Mandarin. Results show that speakers of Akan (level 2-tone language) do not show an advantage compared to speakers of East Asian languages. Our more recent results show that other languages with more tone contrasts do show the effect.
Creel, Sarah, Michael Obiri-Yeboah & Sharon Rose. 2023. Language-to-music transfer effects depends on the tone language: Akan vs. East Asian languages. Memory and Cognition.
Grammatical tone and verb structure in Heiban (Kordofanian) languages
I am working on grammatical tone and high tone spreading in Rere (Koalib) along with Titus Kunda. Rere has high tone spreading that is blocked by high tones that express syntactic constructions - case on pronominal clitics, and a marker of subject voice. It is not blocked by other high tones that expone aspect.
In Tira, there is a system of verbal inflection classes that is orthogonal to grammatical tone as described in Kaldhol (2024). The inflection class system is denoted by final tense, aspect, mood suffixes, but also by vowels of reduplicative affixation. I am working on how this system is organized along a division into primary classes.