Florian Breit — Home


A picture of myself

Oh, hello there :)

I'm a linguist. I specialise in language attitudes, theoretical phonology, and the phonological interfaces (with phonetics, morphosyntax, and the lexicon). I currently work at Bangor University, where I'm part of the Language Attitudes Research Team (L'ART). I'm also affiliated with UCL as an Honorary Research Fellow, where I previously worked as a Lecturer (Teaching).

My current work is mainly concerned with language attitudes, particularly within-group attitudes toward (often contested) regional and/or minority languages. My PhD was 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 teach and/or have taught on a variety of linguistics courses (see my CV and my LING101 YouTube channel).

When I'm not doing linguistics I enjoy writing software, dabbling in theology, exploring the great outdoors, reading, carving spoons, climbing, and a bit of DIY. One of my long-standing dreams is to spend a year or two in a little hut somewhere near a beach, preferably in Catalonia or South America, where I would wear a Panama hat with a hole in it, have afternoon naps in a hammock, and drink too much cheap rose, all the while reading good — and writing bad — poetry.

Recent(ish) news...

  • Feb '25: Marco Tamburelli, Ianto Gruffydd, mine, and Lissander Brasca's paper "Modelling language attitudes: attitudinal measurements and linguistic behaviour in two bilingual communities" is out now with the Journal of Language and Social Psychology.
  • Jan '25: Ianto Gruffydd, Marco Tamburelli, mine, and Hamid Bagheri's paper "Investigating the relationship between language exposure and explicit and implicit language attitudes towards Welsh and English" is out now with the Journal of Language and Social Psychology.
  • Dec '24: Mine, Marco Tamburelly, Ianto Gruffydd, and Lissander Brasca's paper "Pushing boundaries in the measurement of language attitudes: enhancing research practices with the L'ART Research Assistant app" is out now with Linguistics Beyond and Within.
  • Nov '24: Lissander Brasca, Ianto Gruffydd, Marco Tamburelli and mine paper "A matter of strength: Language policy, attitudes and linguistic dominance in three bilingual communities" is out now with the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.
  • Sep '24: Marco Tamburelli, Ianto Gruffydd, Lissander Brasca, Meilyr Jones and I presented work looking at the interaction of policy, attitudes and vitality in the context of three community's language attitudes at the International Congress of Linguists in Poznań.
  • Sep '24: I gave a talk on my and colleagues' work on within-group language attitudes at the UCL Linguistics Seminar.
  • Jul '24: Ianto Gruffydd, Marco Tamburelli and I presented work comparing explicit and implicit attitudes with respect to early age exposure in Welsh young adult's language attitudes at the Cambridge Endangered Languages and Cultures Conference.
  • Jun '24: Marco Tamburelli, Hamid Bagheri, Ianto Gruffydd, Lissander Brasca and I presented word comparing the IAT and other methods for measuring language attitudes across two bilingual communities at ICLASP18 in Tallinn.
  • Feb '24: Lissander Brasca, Marco Tamburelli, Ianto Gruffydd and I presented work on socio-political recognition and language attitudes in minority language settings at the VALS-ALS annual meeting on Asymmetries and Inequalities in Language in Bern.
  • Nov '23: I presented recent work in progress on modelling the lexical impact of mutation on neutralisation and contrastivity at the Western Conference on Linguistics.
  • Oct '23: Marco Tamburelli, Ianto Gruffydd, Lissander Brasca and I gave two talks about methodological aspects of our research on attitudes across several bilingual communities at Linguistics Beyond and Within in Poznan and Documenting Languages, Documenting Cultures in Naples.
  • Aug '23: Elements, Government, and Licensing: Developments in phonology (edited by myself, Yuko Yoshida and Connor Youngberg) is now available open access from UCL Press.
  • Aug '23: Ianto Gruffydd and I have given a public outreach talk on our work on minority language attitudes (esp. Welsh) as part of Bangor University's presence at the 2023 National Eisteddfod.
  • Jul/Aug '23: I have taught two courses (one on the Phonology-Morphosyntax Interface, one on Melodic Representation) and a Praat workshop at the EGG Summer School 2023 in Novi Sad.
  • Jun '23: Ianto Gruffydd and I have presented the first results from our comparative research on minority language attitudes at this year's Welsh Linguistics Seminar in Bangor.
  • Jun '23: Primitives of Phonological Structure (edited by myself, Bert Botma, Marijn van 't Veer and Marc van Oostendorp) is out now with OUP.
  • Jun '23: Jacob Rando and I have presented new results on quantity in North Welsh at APAP 2023 in Lublin and at the Welsh Linguistics Seminar in Bangor.
  • May '23: Marco Tamburelli, Ianto Gryffydd, Lissander Brasca and I have presented/demoed the first public release of the L'ART Research Assistant at Bangor University.
  • Feb '23: I've left my teaching post at UCL, but remain affiliated with the department as an Honorary Research Fellow.