Aiman Khan is a fourth-year Linguistics Specialist at UTSC. Her outstanding research project helped her become the 1st prize winner of SULC 2022 which took place on March 4th, 2022.
With Dr. Rena Helms-Park being the secondary investigator, Aiman’s study focuses on echo-reduplication in Urdu and consists of two parts: a theoretical analysis and an empirical investigation. Her theoretical analysis used Optimality Theory to account for Urdu’s echo-reduplications and concluded that Urdu employs fixed segmentism. To complement her theoretical analysis, which is restricted to data reported in the literature, she is currently collecting data from Urdu/Hindi-English bilingual speakers with Urdu-Hindi as a first and dominant language. The purpose is to examine how the choice of fixed segments (i) varies between Urdu and Hindi, which differ slightly in their phoneme repertoire and phonotactics; and (ii) departs from what is reported in the literature.
We would like to offer our most sincere congratulations to Aiman for being the 1st prize winner of SULC 2022.