Christina Esposito

Professor and Chair

Website: https://cmesposito.wixsite.com/cmesposito

Christina Esposito, Professor and Chair of the Department, specializes in the sounds of languages. More specifically, she is interested in the production and perception of voice quality in languages such as White Hmong, Zapotec, and Gujarati.

Research Interests

The production and perception of phonation
The interaction between phonation and prosody
Languages that use different voice qualities (e.g. creaky, breathy, etc.) to make phonological contrasts

Education

Ph.D. in Linguistics (2006) University of California, Los Angeles. Dissertation: The Effects of Linguistic Experience on the Perception of Phonation.
M.A in Linguistics (2003) University of California, Los Angeles. Thesis: Phonation in Santa Ana del Valle Zapotec.
B.A. in Linguistics (with honors) and Anthropology (2000) State University of New York at Albany. Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. Thesis: Tone and Possessives in San Dionicio Ocotepec Zapotec.

Papers

Papers are available upon request.

Garellek, M., Esposito, C.M., Keating, P. & J. Kreiman. (2013) Voice quality and tone identification in White Hmong. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Vol. 133(2), pp. 1078–1089.
Esposito, C.M. (2012). An acoustic and electroglottographic study of White Hmong phonation. Journal of Phonetics. Vol. 40(3), pp. 466–476.
Esposito, C.M. & S.D. Khan. (2012). Contrastive breathiness across consonants and vowels: A comparative study of Gujarati and White Hmong. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Vol. 42(2), pp. 123-143.
Esposito, C.M. (2011). The perception of pathologically-disordered phonation by Gujarati, English and Spanish listeners. Language and Speech. Vol. 54(3), pp. 1–16.
Esposito, C.M. (2010). The effects of linguistic experience on the perception of phonation. Journal of Phonetics. Vol. 38(2), pp. 303–316.
Esposito, C.M. (2010). Variation in contrastive phonation in Santa Ana del Valle Zapotec. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Vol. 40(02), pp. 181–198.
Esposito, C. M., Khan, S.D. & A. Hurst. (2007). Breathy nasals and /Nh/ clusters in Bengali, Hindi, and Marathi. Indian Linguistics. Vol. 68(3–4), pp. 275–299.

Working papers and conference proceedings

Khan, S.D. & C.M. Esposito. (2011). Contrastive breathiness across consonants and vowels : A comparative study of Gujarati and White Hmong. Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS). Hong Kong.
Keating, P., Esposito, C.M., Garellek, M., Khan, S.D., & J. Kuang. (2011). Phonation Contrasts Across Languages. Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS). Hong Kong.
Keating, P. & C.M. Esposito. (2007). Linguistic voice quality. Proceedings of the 11th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology 2006, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, December 6-8 2006.
Esposito, C.M. (2003). The effects of f0 and position-in-utterance on phonation in Santa Ana del Valle Zapotec. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS). Barcelona, Spain.

Presentations

(Students marked with *)

Keating, P., Kuang, J., Esposito, C.M., Garellek, M., & S.D. Khan. (2012) Multi-dimensional phonetic space for phonation contrasts. 13th Conference on Laboratory Phonology, Stuttgart, Germany.
Keating, P., Esposito, C.M., Garellek, M., Khan, S.D., & J. Kuang. (2012). Phonation in nine languages. 163rd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Hong Kong.
Keating, P., Esposito, C.M., Garellek, M., Khan, S.D., & J. Kuang. (2012). Phonation in nine languages. 163rd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Hong Kong.
Garellek, M., Esposito, C.M., Keating, P., & J. Kreiman. (2012). Relative role of phonation in White Hmong tone identification. 163rd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Hong Kong.
Garellek, M., Esposito, C.M., & P. Keating. (2012). Relative importance of phonation cues in White Hmong tone perception. 38th annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Berkeley, California.
Kreiman, J., Garellek, M. & C.M. Esposito. (2011). Perceptual importance of the voice source spectrum from the second harmonic to 2kHz. 162nd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, San Diego, California.
Esposito, C.M. & S.D. Khan. (2011). Contrastive breathiness across consonants and vowels: A comparative study of Gujarati and White Hmong. 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS), Hong Kong.
Keating, P., Esposito, C.M., Garellek, M., Khan, S.D., & J. Kuang. (2011). Phonation contrasts across languages. 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS), Hong Kong.
Esposito, C.M. & S.D. Khan. (2010). Contrastive breathiness across consonants and vowels: A comparative study of Gujarati and White Hmong. 161st meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Cancún, Mexico.
Keating, P., Esposito, C.M., Garellek, M., Khan, S.D., & J. Kuang. (2010). Phonation contrasts across languages. 12th Conference on Laboratory Phonology, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Esposito, C.M. (2010). An acoustic and electroglottographic study of White Hmong phonation. 84th meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Baltimore, Maryland.
Arctander*, K., Kinney*, H. & C.M. Esposito. (2009). Low-back vowel merger in Minnesotan English. 158th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, San Antonio, Texas.
Esposito, C.M., Ptacek*, J. & S. Yang*. (2009). An acoustic and electroglottographic study of White Hmong phonation. 158th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, San Antonio, Texas.
Esposito, C.M. (2007). The effects of linguistic experience on the perception of pathologically-disordered phonation. 154th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Esposito, C.M. (2007). Linguistic experience and the perception of phonation. 81st meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Anaheim, California.
Keating, P.A. & C.M. Esposito. (2006). Linguistic voice quality. Invited keynote paper at The 11th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology 2006, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Esposito, C.M. (2006). The effects of linguistic experience on the perception of phonation. 80th meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Esposito, C.M., Khan, S.D. & A. Hurst. (2005). Breathiness in Indic languages.149th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Esposito, C.M. (2005). An acoustic and electroglottographic study of phonation in Santa Ana del Valle Zapotec. 79th meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, San Francisco, California.
Esposito, C.M. & R. Scarborough. (2004). An acoustic and electroglottographic study of VʔV in two indigenous American languages. 148th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, San Diego, California.
Esposito, C.M. (2003). The effects of f0 and position-in-utterance on phonation in Santa Ana del Valle Zapotec. 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS), Barcelona, Spain.

Invited talks

Esposito, C.M. (2013). An acoustic and electroglottographic study of phonation in Santa Ana del Valle Zapotec. Reed College, Portland, Oregon.
Esposito, C.M. (2011). Do you hear what we hear: Conducting linguistic fieldwork. Conversations about our scholarly lives. Serie Center, Macalester College.
Esposito, C.M. (2011). Unwrapping the Zapotec voice box: An acoustic and electroglottographic study of phonation. Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota.
Esposito, C.M. (2009). Variation in phonation in Santa Ana del Valle Zapotec. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Grants Received