Danielle Turton

Danielle Turton is a Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, and a member of the Lancaster University Phonetics Lab. Her research focuses on phonological variation and change in English accents, with expertise in Northern English dialects (especially Manchester and Blackburn), ultrasound tongue imaging, and laboratory phonology.

• PhD in Linguistics, University of Manchester (2014)
• MA in Linguistics, University of Manchester (2010)
• BA (Hons) in English Language, University of Manchester (2009)

Her research investigates why accents vary and change over time, emphasizing the intersection between variable processes and phonetics/phonology. She employs ultrasound imaging and acoustic analysis to study phenomena like /l/-darkening, FOOT-STRUT vowel splits, and rhoticity in regional dialects. Google Scholar lists over 40 publications spanning 2011–2024, with recent work on Levantine Arabic laterals and Lancashire rhoticity funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Her methodological contributions include improving forced alignment software for British dialects and crowdsourcing dialectology in undergraduate classrooms. She collaborates with researchers like Robert Lennon, Maciej Baranowski, and Sam Kirkham.