Nicholas Rolle

Nicholas Rolle is an Assistant Professor in the Program in Linguistics at Princeton University. He holds a PhD from the Department of Linguistics at UC Berkeley (2018) and previously held a research position at the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) in Berlin, Germany. His research focuses on phonology, morphology, and their interface with syntax, with a particular emphasis on African languages, especially those in the Niger-Congo family. Key areas of interest include tone systems, segment-tone interactions, vowel harmony, and prosodic constituency, with fieldwork in Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Rolle is a core contributor to the ALFA (Areal Linguistic Features of Africa) project, co-developing a database of vowel systems across 681 West and Central African languages. His work explores typological patterns in Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) harmony and interior vowels, highlighted in Linguistic Typology (2020). Recent publications address tone-driven epenthesis in Ghomala’, clitic tone spreading in Kalabari, and theoretical contributions to morphosyntactic exponence.

• Publications: Over 25 peer-reviewed articles in top journals (Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, Linguistic Inquiry, Phonology).
• Fieldwork collaborations: With communities in Sierra Leone (Limba), Nigeria (Degema, Izon), and Cameroon (Ghomala’).
• Current projects: A monograph on grammatical tone under contract with Mouton De Gruyter.

His work bridges formal theory with empirical description, emphasizing areal and typological linguistics. Office: Green Hall 1-S-16 | Email: nrolle@princeton.edu.