Pavel Iosad

Pavel Iosad is Professor of Synchronic and Diachronic Phonology in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh. He was promoted to Professor in 2024 after serving as Senior Lecturer (2019-2024) and Lecturer in Theoretical Phonology (2013-2019) at the same institution. Previously, he held a lectureship at the University of Ulster (2012-2013) and was a pre-doctoral research fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Tromsø, Norway (2007-2012).

His educational background includes:

• PhD in Linguistics from the University of Tromsø (2012), with a thesis on 'Representation and variation in substance-free phonology: a case study in Celtic'
• Specialist degree (roughly equivalent to MA) in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics from Moscow State University, Russia (2007)

Pavel Iosad is a prominent phonologist whose research spans theoretical phonology, historical phonology, and phonological typology. His work focuses on the nature of phonological features, the division of labor in phonological theory, and the interaction between segmental and suprasegmental phonology. He has made significant contributions to our understanding of 'pitch accent' systems, morphology-phonology interaction, and historical language contact. Notably, he has explored the interesting phonological commonalities among the languages of north-western Europe, such as preaspiration, 'pitch accent' systems, and sonorant pre-occlusion. His primary language areas of expertise include Celtic languages (particularly Welsh, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic), Germanic languages (especially North Germanic), and Slavic languages.

Professor Iosad has received notable recognition for his work, including a Mid-Career Fellowship from the British Academy for his 2025 project 'Phonological microvariation in sound change: Mid vowel alternations in the Slavic languages.' He has also been involved in several other significant research projects, including 'The trajectory and distributional typology of phonological change' with Uppsala University (2024-2026).

He is an active supervisor of PhD students, currently mentoring eight doctoral candidates working on diverse topics including vowel insertion in Gaelic languages, initial consonant mutations in Irish, historical phonology of Great Lakes Bantu, and Semitic historical morphology. His past students have completed dissertations on feature specifications in Old Norwegian height harmony and aspects of the historical phonology of Manx. Beyond his research, Professor Iosad is deeply engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning, particularly in using problem-solving techniques in linguistics education based on the Linguistics Olympiad movement.

At the University of Edinburgh, Professor Iosad is affiliated with the Phonetics and Phonology Research Group, the Language Variation and Change Research Group, and the English Language Research Group. He is also an affiliate of the Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics. His current research projects include phonological microvariation in Slavic languages and the trajectory of phonological change, reflecting his ongoing commitment to advancing our understanding of phonological theory and historical linguistics.