Pocholo Umbal, Ph.D.
[pəˈtʃoʊloʊ umˈbɐl]
Hello! I am an assistant professor of sociolinguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. My pronouns are he/him
I completed my PhD in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. While a grad student, I was also a Graduate Educational Developer at the Teaching Assistants' Training Program.
I am a sociolinguist working under the variationist framework. I examine the relationship between language and the linguistic and societal forces that lead to variation and change. In particular, I am interested in the linguistic behaviour of bilinguals in language contact situations, with specific focus on sound production. My dissertation focused on variable patterns in pronunciation of the sounds /u/, /p t k/, and /r/ in Toronto Heritage Tagalog.
Beyond my dissertation research, I have also conducted projects investigating linguistic variation in Canadian English (multi)ethnolects. Extending this line of work, I am working alongside a team of Asian North American scholars (Dr. Andrew Cheng, Dr. Lauretta S.P. Cheng, and Dr. Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales), surveying linguistic patterns of variation and change in English within Asian North American communities.
Finally, I also work on issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion in linguistics with Dr. Nathan Sanders and Dr. Lex Konnelly at U of T. We have created various resources and materials to make teaching linguistics more inclusive.
I was born in Manila, Philippines and immigrated to Vancouver, BC. I received a BSc in cell biology and linguistics, as well as an MA in linguistics from Simon Fraser University. My MA work was supervised by Dr. Panayiotis A. Pappas and Dr. Suzanne K. Hilgendorf. For my PhD at UofT, I was supervised by Dr. Naomi Nagy and part of the Heritage Language Variation and Change (HLVC) in Toronto project.
I completed my PhD in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. While a grad student, I was also a Graduate Educational Developer at the Teaching Assistants' Training Program.
I am a sociolinguist working under the variationist framework. I examine the relationship between language and the linguistic and societal forces that lead to variation and change. In particular, I am interested in the linguistic behaviour of bilinguals in language contact situations, with specific focus on sound production. My dissertation focused on variable patterns in pronunciation of the sounds /u/, /p t k/, and /r/ in Toronto Heritage Tagalog.
Beyond my dissertation research, I have also conducted projects investigating linguistic variation in Canadian English (multi)ethnolects. Extending this line of work, I am working alongside a team of Asian North American scholars (Dr. Andrew Cheng, Dr. Lauretta S.P. Cheng, and Dr. Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales), surveying linguistic patterns of variation and change in English within Asian North American communities.
Finally, I also work on issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion in linguistics with Dr. Nathan Sanders and Dr. Lex Konnelly at U of T. We have created various resources and materials to make teaching linguistics more inclusive.
I was born in Manila, Philippines and immigrated to Vancouver, BC. I received a BSc in cell biology and linguistics, as well as an MA in linguistics from Simon Fraser University. My MA work was supervised by Dr. Panayiotis A. Pappas and Dr. Suzanne K. Hilgendorf. For my PhD at UofT, I was supervised by Dr. Naomi Nagy and part of the Heritage Language Variation and Change (HLVC) in Toronto project.
Curriculum Vitae
Contact information
p 'dot' umbal 'at' utoronto 'dot' ca
Department of Linguistics | University of Toronto
Sidney Smith Hall Fourth Floor (SS 4080), 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3 Canada
Department of Linguistics | University of Toronto
Sidney Smith Hall Fourth Floor (SS 4080), 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3 Canada
Recent activities and updates
- August 2024: My co-authored paper on synthesizing scholarship on sociolinguistic variation and change in Asian and Pacific Islander North American English has been published in Asia-Pacific Language Variation.
- September 2023: I started my position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto.
- August 2023: I successfully defended my dissertation, A comparative variationist analysis of phonetic variation and change in Toronto Heritage Tagalog.
- February 2023: My co-authored paper on integrating qualitative and quantitative analyses of stance finally has a home in Language in Society Volume 52, Issue 1.
Links
How do you say my name?
| pocholoumbal.wav |
