Florian Breit — Home


A picture of myself

Oh, hello there :)

I'm a theoretical phonologist who sometimes worries a little too much about melodic representation. I'm currently a Lecturer (Teaching) in Phonetics and Phonology at UCL. My just recently passed PhD is on a (diacritic-free) floating element account of Welsh mutation. I also work on Element Theory (especially laryngeal contrast in nasals, formalism, and the phonetic interface) and on various aspects of Welsh linguistics (quantity, auxiliary deletion, epenthesis). I also teach on a variety of linguistics courses (see my CV).

When I'm not doing linguistics I enjoy writing software, advocating green politics, cycling, theology, exploring the great outdoors, reading Thoreau, carving spoons, cooking, and Tai Chi Chuan. One of my long-standing dreams is to spend a year or two in a little hut by the beach, preferably in Catalonia or South America, wearing a panama hat with a hole, drinking too much cheap rose and writing bad poetry.

Recent news...

  • May '21: Yuni Kim, myself, Bert Botma, Faith Chiu, Natalia Hernández, Nancy Kula, and Kuniya Nasukawa gave a talk on Nasal Shielding and non-phonological voicing in Amuzgo de San Pedro Amuzgos at the 28th Manchester Phonology Meeting.
  • Feb '21: I've been awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.
  • Jan '21: James Cottam and I gave a talk on how synchronic and diachronic evidence conspire toward trigger-centricity in Welsh mutation at the Bilbao Morphophonology Circle, University of Deusto.
  • Oct '20: I'm now a Lecturer (Teaching) at UCL.
  • Jun '20: I've been nominated for two Student Choice Awards, in the categories Inspiring Teaching Delivery and Exceptional Feedback.
  • Jan '20: I gave a talk on Nasal Relativism at the workshop on Nasality and laryngeal representations in phonology at the University of Essex
  • Sep '19: Started a new job as a Teaching Fellow in Phonetics and Phonology at UCL.
  • Jul '19: Passed my PhD on Welsh Mutation & Strict Modularity without corrections (post-viva picture).
  • May '19: Presented talks on modularity and the phonology of Welsh Mutation at Atelier de phonologie in Paris and Séminare P3 in Nantes.
  • June '18: Gave a talk about the way Dual Interpretation and Saliency arise from Spell-Out at Elements Nantes
  • May' 18: Presented a talk on Welsh Mutation and the separation of Syntax from Phonology at NAPhCX in Montréal
  • Apr' 18: Gave a talk on Welsh Mutation from a modularist perspective at UConn's LingLunch