About me

Hello there! I'm Makoto Umeno (梅野真実 in Japanese). I'm currently a PhD student at the University of Osaka, where I received my BA and MA. I'm originally from Nara, which is a neighbouring prefecture to Osaka and Kyoto. So, I can safely say that I'm a proper speaker of Kansai dialect of Japanese. In my pronounciation, my name can be transcribed in IPA as [ˈumeno mɐkoto]. Note that /u/ is not unrounded!

My academic interests lie primarily in phonological theory, especially Government Phonology & Element Theory, and in how theory can account for a wide range of phonological phenomena. More specifically, I've worked, or I’m working, on topics like these: phonological representations, phonological domains, consonant lenition, vowel reduction, laryngeal-related phenomena (e.g. laryngeal neutralisation, sonorant devoicing, passive voicing, aspiration and preaspiration), laryngeal typology & specifications, English foot-structure, weak vowels in English, stop epenthesis in English, regional variations in English, among other related topics.