Andries W. Coetzee

Andries Coetzee is a professor of linguistics and the director of the African Studies Center. His research interests cover the areas of phonetics, speech processing, phonological theory, and the interfaces between these research areas. Most recently, his research (in close collaboration with Pam Beddor) has focused on the relationship between the production and perception of coarticulated speech in individual speakers/listeners (using techniques such as eye-tracking, airflow measures, ultrasound imaging, etc.). A larger goal of this research program is to understand individual differences in perception/production and the role of perception/production in sound change. The second strand of his research focuses on the documentation of the phonetics and phonology of Southern African languages, with particular attention to Afrikaans (his native language). He has also done extensive research in the domain of phonological theory, with a focus on variable phonological phenomena and how such phenomena can be accounted for in constraint-based versions of phonological grammar (Optimality Theory and Harmonic Grammar).

Andries Coetzee teaches phonetics/phonology, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as several of the department’s introductory level undergraduate courses and graduate professionalization seminars. He regularly advises both graduate and undergraduate students in their research. Some of his recent graduate advisees include Michael Marlo (2007, The verbal tonology of Lumarachi and Lunyala-West, now at University of Missouri), Miyeon Ahn (2011, The interplay of phonetics and phonology in cross-language speech perception: the case of English loans in Korean, now at Seoul National University), Xinting Zhang (2012, A Comparison of Cue-Weighting in the Perception of Prosodic Phrases, now at South University of Science and Technology of China), Harim Kwon (2015, Cue Primacy and Spontaneous Imitation: Is Imitation Phonetic or Phonological?, now at George Mason University).

In addition to serving on several committees in Linguistics, Andries Coetzee also regularly serves on university-wide committees. He is very involved with the Linguistic Society of America, for whom he has co-directed the 2013 Linguistic Institute, and served as chair of the Program Committee (overseeing the organization the LSA Annual Meeting). He is editor of the LSA's flagship journal, Language. He was inducted as a fellow of the LSA in 2015. He also maintains close ties with his home university in South Africa (the North-West University) where he holds the title of Extraordinary Professor.