Aaron Braver

Aaron Braver is an Associate Professor and Director of Linguistics at the Department of English, Texas Tech University. He investigates phonetics, phonology, and their interface through both theoretical and experimental approaches, with a focus on South African Bantu languages like Xhosa.

• Ph.D. in Linguistics, Rutgers University (2013)
• B.A. in Linguistics and Linguistic Anthropology, Brandeis University

His research spans three interconnected projects:

• Bantu (morph)phonology: Examining phonotactic generalizations in noun class morphology, uncommon sounds (e.g., Xhosa’s velar ejective affricate), and incomplete neutralization phenomena.
• Incomplete Neutralization: Modeling phonetic-phonological interactions in cases where contrasts persist despite phonological identity.
• Gesture in Language Learning: Interdisciplinary studies on whether gesturing avatars enhance computer-based L2 pronunciation learning, collaborating with psychology and computer science researchers.

Recent publications highlight trends in phonetic constraint modeling (2023, 2019), Bantu morphophonology (2020, 2016), and gesture-based pedagogy (2020, 2019). He leads the Phonetics and Phonology Linguistics Lab (PPLL) at TTU.