Xavier Bach
CLLE CNRS & Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès

I am a linguist. My main interests are typology, morphology, syntax, and historical linguistics, as well as Romance, Celtic, and Austronesian languages. I am currently Maître de conférences (associate professor) in Morphology and its interface with Syntax at the Département Sciences du Langage of the Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, and a member of the CNRS research lab CLLE. 

I first trained in Toulouse in History and French Literature, with particular interests in the medieval period. I then went on to teach Occitan and French at secondary schools in Toulouse and Gap, before turning to the charity sector, working for a few years on Occitan revitalisation programmes as well as teaching the language to adults and future teachers. I still teach Occitan and French languages, and I have been involved in a number of translation projects over the years.

I retrained as a linguist at the University of Oxford from 2011, where I obtained a Master of Studies in 2012, and a D.Phil. in 2020, defending a thesis on The Origins of Inflectional Classes, under the supervision of Prof. Martin Maiden and Prof. Mary Dalrymple. In Oxford, I held a number of positions, including a Laming Fellowship at the Queen's College, to document languages in Western Papua, Lectureships in French at Worcester College and St Catherine's College, Lectureships in Linguistics at Christ Church College, and a Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College, working on a project about suppletion.

I work on a number of topics related to non-canonical inflection, including inflection classes and heteroclisis, suppletion, gender systems, numerals, and the morphology of number. I have recently started to develop a theory of strictly morpho-syntactic features. Most of my other works are in the historical linguistics and documentation of Romance (including Occitan and Oïl varieties) and SHWNG languages. I also have an interest in Celtic Linguistics.