Jennifer Bohun Hay is a New Zealand linguist who specialises in sociolinguistics, laboratory phonology, and the history of New Zealand English. As of 2020 she is a full professor at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

Academic career

In 2000, Hay gained a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

titled ''Causes and Consequences of Word Structure'' at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

in the Linguistics department. She moved to the

, and was appointed a full professor in 2010. Hay's research has revealed that a New Zealand dialect took only a single generation to emerge. She has explored how speech perception and production is influenced by past experiences and current context, including environmental factors: for example, New Zealanders hear vowels differently if they are in a room with toy

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

s and

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womb ...

s as opposed to toy

kiwi Kiwi most commonly refers to: * Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand * Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders * Kiwifruit, an edible berry * Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency Kiwi or KIWI may also refe ...

. Hay is the director of the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour, a multi-disciplinary research centre based at the University of Canterbury. In 2015 she was awarded a

James Cook Research Fellowship The James Cook Research Fellowship is a New Zealand fellowship awarded annually to three recipients by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, in recognition of sustained excellence in research. It is generally regarded as prestigious. History The schem ...

to research on how personal experience shapes the New Zealand accent and word use. In 2017, Hay was featured in the Royal Society Te Apārangi's

150 women in 150 words Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

project, celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.

Awards

Hay received a

Rutherford Discovery Fellowship The Rutherford Discovery Fellowships are an annual science fellowship in New Zealand. The fellowships, established in 2010, are administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi through a competitive process. Ten fellowships are awarded nationally. T ...

in 2011, a James Cook Research Fellowship and a University of Canterbury Research Award in 2015, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2015.

Selected articles

* * * * * * *

Authored books

* * *

Rens Bod Rens Bod (born 1965, Bergh) is a professor in digital humanities and history of humanities at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on the exploration of patterns and underlying principles in language, music, art, literature and hist ...

, Jennifer Hay, and Stefanie Jannedy. ''Probabilistic Linguistics.'' 2003. MIT Press.

References

External links

* * Living people New Zealand women academics Women linguists Year of birth missing (living people) Northwestern University alumni Academic staff of the University of Canterbury Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand Victoria University of Wellington alumni James Cook Research Fellows {{NewZealand-academic-bio-stub