My research focuses on creole languages, morphology, syntax, and language documentation. I'm particularly interested in the development and structure of French-based creoles, with ongoing projects on Mauritian, Guadeloupean, Haitian and Louisiana Creoles.
I direct the KreoLex project, which aims to create comprehensive lexical databases for multiple creole languages to support linguistic research and language preservation efforts. I also lead two NSF-funded projects: an IRES program for student research in creole-speaking communities and a DLI-DEL project developing speech technologies for creole languages.
• Doctorat Sciences du Langage, Linguistique Descriptive, Théorique & Computationnelle, Université Paris Diderot (2010)
• DEA Sciences du Langage, Université Paris-Sorbonne Nouvelle (2004)
• Maîtrise Sciences du Langage: Ingénierie Linguistique, Université Paris-Sorbonne Nouvelle (2003)
• BA (Hons) French, University of Mauritius (1999)
Current Research Projects
NSF-IRES: Documenting & Analyzing Creole Languages
NSF DLI-DEL: Advancing Linguistic Research through Speech Technologies
KreoLex Database
Research Areas
Creole Linguistics
- Comparative creole studies
- Morphosyntactic variation
- Language contact phenomena
- Lexical development
Language Documentation
- Digital archiving
- Corpus linguistics
- Phonetic documentation
- Community-based research
Computational Methods
- Lexical database development
- Natural language processing
- Statistical analysis
- Automatic speech recognition
Theoretical Linguistics
- Word-based morphology
- Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar
- Syntax-morphology interface
- Grammatical categories
Selected Publications
Morphomic structure in Mauritian Kreol: On change, complexity and creolization
This paper examines morphomic structure in Mauritian Creole, discussing implications for theories of language change, complexity, and creolization processes.
Negation and Negative Concord: The view from Creoles (Edited Volume)
Co-edited volume with Viviane Déprez exploring negation and negative concord patterns across various creole languages.
Conversion relations and the morphological complexity of three French-based creoles
Co-authored chapter examining conversion relations in Haitian, Guadeloupean, and Mauritian creoles and their implications for morphological complexity.
An acoustic and articulatory investigation of the Mauritian vowel inventory
Co-authored study providing detailed acoustic and articulatory analysis of vowel sounds in Mauritian Creole.
Curriculum Vitae
Download my complete academic CV for detailed information about my education, publications, presentations, grants, and professional experience.
Updated: December 2024
Current Professional Roles
- Assistant Professor: Department of Romance Languages & Literatures, University at Buffalo (2020-present)
- Affiliate Faculty: Department of Linguistics, University at Buffalo
- Affiliate: Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, University at Buffalo (2025-present)
- President-Elect/Vice-President: Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (2025-2027)
- Associate Editor: Journal of Pidgins and Creoles Languages (2024-present)