Research
I specialize in intonation (prosody), breathy and creaky voice quality (phonation), infant-directed speech, and the relationship between reduplication and (dis)similarity. I've published work on several languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Thai, and Upper Saxon.
I'm a strong believer in research as a collaborative endeavor, and that findings should be shared with the community in whatever capacity possible. To that end, I've included links to PDFs of papers that I have published and to the , an open-access journal I co-edit.
Here's a PDF of my CV.
InTraSAL website: describes how to analyze and transcribe the intonation of various South Asian languages
PDFs of theses
PhD dissertation, 2008: Intonational phonology and focus prosody of Bengali
Committee: Sun-Ah Jun (chair), Bruce P. Hayes, Patricia A. Keating, Jody Kreiman, Kie Ross Zuraw
MA thesis, 2006: Similarity avoidance in Bengali fixed-segment reduplication
Committee: Kie Ross Zuraw (chair), Bruce P. Hayes, Colin Wilson
PDFs of publications
Esposito, Christina M., Kevin Schäfer, & SD Khan. 2023. Phonation and aging in White Hmong. , 2050-4.
Keating, Patricia, Jianjing Kuang, Christina M. Esposito, Marc Garellek, & SD Khan. 2023. . Language 99(2), 351–89.
Becker, Kara, SD Khan, & Lal Zimman. 2022. Beyond binary gender: creaky voice, gender, and the variationist enterprise. Language Variation and Change 34, 215–38.
Esposito, Christina M. & SD Khan. 2021. Teaching & Learning Guide for: The cross-linguistic patterns of phonation types. Language and Linguistics Compass.
Khan, SD. 2021. Palatalization and velarization in Malayalam nasals: a preliminary acoustic study of the dental-alveolar contrast. , Portland. ()
Khan, SD. 2021. . The Daily Star: Amar Ekushey Supplement. Dhaka.
Esposito, Christina M. & SD Khan. 2020. The cross-linguistic patterns of phonation types. Language and Linguistics Compass 14(12), 1–25.
Esposito, Christina M., SD Khan, Kelly Harper Berkson, & Max Nelson. 2019. Distinguishing breathy consonants and vowels in Gujarati. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 6(2) 215-243. (ICPhS2019 version) ()
Khan, SD. 2018. . The Daily Star: Amar Ekushey Supplement. Dhaka.
Khan, SD. 2016. . Proceedings of Formal Approaches to South Asian Languages 6, Amherst, 23–36.
Khan, SD. 2016. Review of Frota, Sónia and Prieto, Pilar (eds.) Intonation in Romance. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 46(2), 253–257.
Nelson, Max, Kelly Harper Berkson, SD Khan, & Christina M. Esposito. 2016. Perception of breathy phonation in Gujarati. Proceedings of Formal Approaches to South Asian Languages 6, 14–22.
Khan, SD. 2014. The intonational phonology of Bangladeshi Standard Bengali. In Sun-Ah Jun (ed.). Prosodic Typology II: the Phonology of Intonation and Phrasing. OUP. () (website)
Yu, Kristine M., SD Khan, and Megha Sundara. 2014. Intonational phonology in Bengali and English infant-directed speech. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 7, Dublin: Trinity College.
Khan, SD. 2013. Consonant confusability and its relation to phonological dissimilarity. Proceedings of the 21st International Congress on Acoustics, Montreal.
Khan, SD and Constanze Weise. 2013. Upper Saxon (Chemnitz dialect). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (2), 231–241. (sound files)
Khan, SD. 2012. The phonetics of contrastive phonation in Gujarati. Journal of Phonetics 40 (6), 780–795. (sound files)
Esposito, Christina M. and SD Khan. 2012. Contrastive breathiness across consonants and vowels: a comparative study of Gujarati and White Hmong. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 42 (2), 123–143.
Yu, Kristine M., SD Khan, Alejandrina Cristia, Huei-Mei Liu, Megha Sundara. 2011. . Acoustical Society of America World Wide Press Room.
Keating, Patricia, Christina M. Esposito, Marc Garellek, SD Khan, & Jianjing Kuang. 2011. Phonation contrasts across languages. Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Hong Kong, 1046–1049. (2010 version from UCLA WPP 108)
Khan, SD. 2010. Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (2), 221–225. (sound files)
Kreiman, Jody, Bruce R. Gerratt, and SD Khan. 2010. Effects of native language on perception of voice quality. Journal of Phonetics 38 (4), 588–593.
Khan, SD. 2007. Similarity avoidance in East Bengali fixed-segment reduplication. In Bainbridge, Erin & Brian Agbayani (eds.) Proceedings of the 34th Western Conference on Linguistics, Fresno, 257–271.
Esposito, Christina M., SD Khan, and Alex Hurst. 2007. Breathy nasals and /Nh/ clusters in Bengali, Hindi, and Marathi. Indian Linguistics 68 (3–4), 275–299. Pune: Linguistic Society of India. (Preprint version.) (Electronic version published in 2005 in UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics 104, 82–106.)
Current work
Jun, Sun-Ah & SD Khan (eds.). Prosodic Typology III. Oxford University Press. In preparation.
- Jun, Sun-Ah & SD Khan. Introduction to Volume III. Chapter 1. In preparation.
- Khan, SD. The intonational typology of South Asian languages. Chapter 15. In preparation.
- Jun, Sun-Ah & SD Khan. Prosodic typology. Chapter 16. In preparation.
Yu, Kristine M., SD Khan, & Megha Sundara. Intonational phonology in Bengali and English infant-directed speech. Revising for resubmission.
Khan, SD, Adam Chong, & Yu Tanaka. K’iche’, West Central. Revising for resubmission.
Khan, SD. Gradient similarity avoidance in Bengali echo reduplication. Revising for resubmission.
Khan, SD. Consonant confusability in Bengali. In preparation.
Khan, SD, Kara Becker, & Lal Zimman. The acoustics of perceived creaky voice in American English. In preparation.
Joshi, Kinjal & SD Khan. Exhaustive movement, exhaustive tone: a syntactic–prosodic investigation of Gujarati. In preparation.
Gope, Amalesh & SD Khan. Sylheti, Cachar variety. In preparation.
Gope, Amalesh & SD Khan. Sylheti tonogenesis. In preparation.
Gope, Amalesh & SD Khan. Prosodic marking of focus in Sylheti. In preparation.
Khan, SD, Christina M. Esposito, & Kinjal Joshi. Gujarati. In preparation.
Khan, SD. Measuring phonological (dis)similarity: echo reduplication, lexical cooccurrence, and confusability. In preparation.