Akinbiyi Akinlabi
Professor of Linguistics
Ph.D., Ibadan, 1985
Office: Room 202, 18 Seminary Place
732-932-8432
akinlabi@rci.rutgers.edu

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Research Interests

Phonology --- tone, harmony, prosodic structure, underspecification theory. Morphology--- phonology interaction, prosodic morphology Optimality Theory West African Linguistics, especially of Benue-Congo languages.

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Recent Work  Book Akinlabi, A. (accepted). Yoruba: A Phonological Grammar. The W.E. B. Du Bois Series ofAfrican Language Grammars. Series editor: John Mugane. Center for AfricanStudies, Harvard University  Chapters in Books Akinlabi, A. and M. Liberman (2006) “Tonal Complexes and a Lokaa Conspiracy.” In Globalization and the Future of African Languages. ed. by Francis Egbokhare and Clement Kolawole. Ibadan Cultural Studies Group. Pp. 444 – 463. Akinlabi, A. (2004b) Yoruba Sound System. Understanding Yoruba Life andCulture ed. by Lawal, Nike, Sadiku, M. and Dopamu, A. Africa World Press. Pp.453-468. . Iwara, Alex; Akinbiyi Akinlabi; and Hubert Truckenbrodt (2003) The Tonal Phonology and Phonetics of the Future Negative in Lokaa. In Linguistic Typologyand Representation of African Languages,ed. by John Mugane. Africa World Press. Pp. 103-115.. Akinlabi, A. (2001). Yoruba. In Facts About the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, ed. by Jane Garry and Carl Rubino. New England Publishing Associates Pp. 836-841. Akinlabi, A. and M. Liberman (2000) “The Tonal Phonology of Yoruba Clitics.” In Clitics in phonology, morphology and syntax. eds. B.Gerlach and J. Grijzenhout. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Pp. 31 – 62.  Refereed Journal Articles Akinlabi, A. (2007). “Neutral Vowels in Lokaa Harmony.” to appear in Canadian Journal of Linguistics. 37pp. Njwe, E., B. Elugbe and A. Akinlabi. (2007). “Tonal Changes in Associative Constructionsin Ngwo,” (accepted with revisions) in Studies in African Linguistics. 17pp. Akinlabi, A. and M. Liberman. (under review). “Tonal Complexes: The prosodicOrganization of Tones.” Re-submitted to Phonology. 42pp. Akinlabi, A. and S. Lee (2007). “Predicting Ibibio vowel distribution,” In Journal of West African Languages. XXXIII/2 Pp. 43-60. Akinlabi, A. and E. Urua (2003) Foot Structure in the Ibibio Verb. In Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. 24/2, pp. 119-160. Akinlabi, A. (2008) “Category Change as Vowel Reduction: High Vowels in Yoruba.” submitted to Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.20pp.  Articles in Proceedings of Conferences/Festschrifts etc. Akinlabi, A (2004a). “Fixed Segmentism in Yoruba Deverbal Nouns,” In Forms and Functions of English and Indigenous Languages in Nigeria: A festschrift in Honour of Ayo Banjo. ed. by Kola Owolabi and Ademola Dasylva. GroupPublishers, Ibadan. Pp. 273-295. Akinlabi, Akinbiyi (2003). “Sonorant Nasalization in Yoruba Deverbal Nouns.” In Actes du 3e Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Africaine, Lome 2000. Ed. by Kezie K. Lebikaza. Ruediger Koeppe Verlag, Cologne, pp. 3-19. Akinlabi, A. and M. Liberman (2001). Tonal Complexes and Tonal Alignment. In Minjoo Kim and Uri Strauss (eds) Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society, 31, 1-20. Amherst, Mass: GLSA. Akinlabi, Akinbiyi & Ngessimo Mutaka (2001). Tone in the Infinitive in Kinande: an OT Analysis. In Ngessimo Mutaka & Beban S. Chumbow (eds) Research Mate in African Linguistics: Focus on Cameroon. A fieldworker's tool for deciphering the stories Cameroonian languages have to tell. In honor of Professor Larry M. Hyman. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, pp. 333-356. Akinlabi, A. and E. Urua (2000) “Tone in Ibibio verbal reduplication,” In Wolff, H.E.& O.D. Gensler (eds.) Proceedings of the 2nd World Congress of African Linguistics. Koln: Rudiger Koppe Verlag, pp. 279-291.