graduate studies
Ben Chung awarded CGRS-D scholarship to pursue Sm'algya̱x language research
Congratulations to Ben Chung! He has been awarded a 2026 Canada Graduate Research Scholarship for a doctoral research project focusing on language change in Sm'algya瘫x (Coast Tsimshian).
Please describe the focus of your CGRS-D project.
The project I outlined in my CGRS-D application focuses on reduplication in Sm'algya瘫x (Coast Tsimshian). Sm'algya瘫x is spoken in and around the Prince Rupert area, the mouth of the Skeena River, and even a bit into Alaska. It has considerable allomorphy in its reduplication that seems to depend on the root and phonological environment of the root. Language change amongst Indigenous and endangered languages is inevitable (like with all languages). The context and effects of these changes feel often more intense, however, given the small speaking populations and that we find ourselves ever more frequently working with the last generation of first language (L1) birth speakers.
For these reasons, I designed this project to address an aspect of language change that was initially documented in the late 1980s that we can now address with a new generation of learners and L1 speakers using more robust, modern approaches.
The project has shifted a bit in my head, as I plan out my PhD studies. However, my PhD research will still include Sm'algya瘫x and use similar techniques like storyboards and maybe some experimental methods.
How did you decide upon this area of research?
This project was inspired by my final paper in Dr. Ashley Farris-Trimble鈥檚 Topics in Linguistics III Summer 2025 course. The class covered phonological opacity, which is a phenomenon in which a phonological rule/ its interaction with other rules in a language is contradicted by the surface form (i.e., the pronounced form). That is to say, how we think about the intermediary mechanics of the phonology gets called into question based on the form that we actually interact with and perceive as spoken Output.
Phonological opacity also theoretically influences learnability, and Sm'algya瘫x's reduplication has these confusing exceptions that result in opaque Output. My proposed CGRS-D project took this research using secondary data further to explore how the morphology interacts with the phonology in the language and the predictability of reduplication based on phonological environments and structures as variables.
There are also new patterns that appear to be more frequent in younger generations of speakers. To understand this case of language change, we now require additional, contemporary primary documentation.