Journal of Undergraduate Research

Preston Christensen and Cynthia Hallen, Linguistics Abstract Patronymic naming is very common in parts of Mozambique but there has possibly been no formal documentation of this practice prior to this study. Patronymic naming involves the passing of the father’s name to the children and is not to be confused with patronymic surnames. The research was […]

Trenton Hyer and Faculty Mentor: Dirk Elzinga, Department of Linguistics Introduction The objective of this project is to document word borrowing in Riograndenser Hunsrückisch, an understudied variety of German spoken in southern Brazil. UNESCO’s The Red Book of Endangered Languages listed Riograndenser Hunsrückisch as an endangered language in 1992, but linguists have written very little […]

Shane Peterson and Marvin Gardner, English Language Introduction It’s hard to believe that we’ve made it this far. In a matter of months, Mormon Insights went from being an idea Brother Gardner had thought of to an actual online publication and editing capstone course. We’ve been hard at work the entire time, trying to create […]

Diana Shelton (née Sun) and Janis Nuckolls, Linguistics and English Language Introduction Quichua is a branch of Quechua, a group of indigenous South American languages, which is found in Amazonian Ecuador. This language utilizes a type of adverb, called ideophones, which symbolizes sound, motion, and other sensations. Ideophones are often foregrounded with speaker movements and […]

Emily Furner and William Eggington, Linguistics and English Language When a new word premieres in a publication in the English language, the word is normally followed with a definition (hereafter gloss) that defines or restates its meaning1. But generally, words will eventually stop being defined as readers come to understand the meaning of the word. […]

Stephanie Hedges and David Eddington, Linguistics Accents affect employment ratings more when the accent is perceived to be stronger (Carlson & McHenry, 2006). When the accent is strongly perceived by the employer, employment ratings drastically dropped for those speaking Spanish-influenced, Asian-influenced and African American English dialects (Carlson & McHenry, 2006). However, when the accent was […]

Andrew Bashford and Dr. Mark Tanner, Linguistics and English Language English teachers’ primary goal is to help their students use English as a means of communication, self-expression, and transaction. Of course, learning a second language is not a spontaneous process: it requires study, practice, and meaningful feedback. In fact, one of the teacher’s most essential […]

Kevin Blissett and Dr. Dirk Elzinga, Linguistics The Orang Seletar and Sugut Sungai languages are endangered languages indigenous to Malaysia. With every generation there are fewer speakers of the language, and, perhaps more worryingly, the language is less frequently taught to children. It is increasingly urgent for linguists to document the languages before they vanish […]

Anna McConner-Hughes and Dr.Wendy Baker-Smemoe, Linguistics Department Introduction The purpose of this study is to examine the learning of English consonants by native Armenian speakers. In particular, we examined how the native Armenian speakers perceive and produce English voiced and voiceless ‘th’ sounds (as in the words thy and thigh (/ð/ and /θ/ in IPA)). […]

Jarrett Lever and Dr. Deryle Lonsdale, Linguistics Department Introduction An elicited imitation (EI) test is a simple, indirect method of assessing language ability and proficiency. EI works by having subjects hear a determined item (or sentence) and having them repeat the item back as close as possible to what is heard. The theory of EI […]