I am a final year PhD student at Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) and Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities (LUCDH). 

My main research interest is in (general) dialectology, the study of geographical variation of language. In other words, I create and analyse linguistic maps based on data from dialect surveys and linguistic atlases (see here). In addition, I attempt to seek universal tendencies in dialectal variation in different parts of the world. I am interested in questions like "do dialect boundaries exist?" and "how did a specific linguistic feature spread from one place to another?". I am also interested in exploring the dialect variation of tones. How do dialects differ on the tonal level? Do we find a dialect continuum with tones? These are all questions that I would like to explore further.

Computational methods have become a big part of my research nowadays. I use methods from machine learning, including cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling to speculate dialect distances in my data. Recently, I also started using NLP/ Corpus-based approaches to approach dialectometry.

In addition, I am interested in creating digital maps using Geographical Information System (GIS), and with these maps, I like to explore the phonological history of dialects by exploring the areal distribution of variants as well as sound change interactions and diffusion patterns. Other than using the existing methods in dialectology, I also like to find new ways in understanding the dialect data by writing various Python scripts. I also use R for data visualisation. 

Previously, I explored the relationship between San Diu, a language spoken in Northern Vietnam, and a number of Southern Sinitic languages in my undergraduate dissertation. For my Master's thesis, I studied the geographical variation of a feature in Yue dialects and reconstructed an older dialect landscape of Guangdong. You can find my Master's thesis here. 

I am interested in working on other languages too. Previously, I have worked with traditional English dialects with the Survey of English Dialects (SED), as well as Scottish English with Youtube videos as the source of data. In addition, I have used German (PAD) and Dutch (GTRP, SAND, GCND) dialect data for some side projects during my PhD.

In Oct 2023, I started a digitisation project with the SED data with my students who were taking Methods in Dialectology. I hope to make this dataset open access in the near future.

In February 2025, I have joined the Digital warfare in the Sahel project as a researcher. I gather social media data and apply a range of methods, including digital mapping and network analysis, to gain insights from these data.

You can find out more about my PhD project here.