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Staff Profile

Dr Damien Hall

Senior Lecturer in French Linguistics

  • Email: damien.hall@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: Office 3.04, Old Library Building
    School of Modern Languages
    Newcastle University
    NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
    NE1 7RU
Background

Profile

I came to Newcastle after degrees in the UK and the USA and research positions back in the UK. My main research and teaching is in sociolinguistics and dialectology, particularly phonetic and phonological. I specialise in French linguistics, though I also teach and research in general linguistics.

Language is endlessly fascinating, and I often tweet about it @EvrydayLg.

I am a member of the managing committee of the Buchanan Esperanto Endowment at the University of Liverpool. From 2015 to 2019 I was External Examiner for undergraduate degrees involving French at the University of Surrey.

I organise the annual competition to represent Newcastle University at British Conference of Undergraduate Research events. Newcastle University is hosting the conference in April 2025; for more information, please contact me!

To contact me, please see the Teaching tab.

Career

Newcastle University

Completed Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2012-13)

Lecturer in French Linguistics 2013-21, Senior Lecturer 2021-

University of Kent

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Towards A New Linguistic Atlas of France (2011-2012)

University of York (UK)

Research Assistant: Accent and Identity on the Scottish–English Border (2008-2011)

University of Pennsylvania

PhD: A Sociolinguistic Study of the Regional French of Normandy (2003-2008)

University of Cambridge

MPhil, Linguistics (2002-2003)

London School of Economics and Political Science

MSc, European Studies (1996-1997)

University of Oxford

BA, Classics and Modern Languages (French and Latin) (1992-1996)

Research

Current projects in linguistics:

  • Towards A New Linguistic Atlas of France (TANLAF), a phonetic and phonological survey of speech in the largest cities in the Northern third of France, along the lines of the Atlas of North American English. For further details, see my article ‘The Linguistic Geography of the French of Northern France: do we have the basic data?’.
  • The linguistics of the Regional French of Normandy: I have recently published articles about the pronunciation of the -ais and -é endings in Normandy, and about the Regional French of Le Havre, Normandy. A co-authored article with Ian Mackenzie (also SML) on the variable doubly-filled complementiser there (Standard French La maison où j’habite 'The house where I live' would be La maison où que j’habite 'The house where that I live' in RFN) is under review.

My future research plans include projects on the dialectology, sociolinguistics, phonetics and phonology of French and English, in particular:

  • the dialectological potential of the recordings made for the Phonologie du Français Contemporain (‘Phonology of Contemporary French’) project
  • the phonetic cues to distinctions between French nasal vowels
  • the phonetics of French rhotics
  • the phonology of stress assignment for French loanwords in English

I also carry out research into Academic Residence Abroad, and am currently developing a research project with colleagues at Newcastle and Leeds, on the psychology of students who undertake academic residence abroad, and whether or not the current model for that period of a languages degree fits modern needs and expectations. This paper describes my ideas.

I welcome enquiries about potential research and supervision on these topics and others of interest.

To contact me, please see the Teaching tab.

Teaching

Present your research and represent the University at a conference!

If you're a student and you've come here looking for details of my teaching, you might like the opportunity to present your research at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research in Newcastle in April 2025! University funding is available to support your return here from home for the conference. Ask me for details.


Feedback and consultation hours

Monday 4.30-5.30, Tuesday 1.30-2.30 and Thursday 2.30-3.30. I hold consultation hours simultaneously in person in OLB 3.04 and on Zoom here. I don't make bookings; just turn up.


Teaching

In Semester 1 2024/25, I am teaching on the following modules:


Generally, I have taught topics in sociolinguistics, dialectology and general linguistics, with particular emphasis on phonetics and phonology. My speciality is French, though I also teach in general linguistics and English linguistics. I am keen to supervise research students with an interest in one or more of these areas.

Publications