Research Areas
English phonetics/phonology – (Supra)segmental variation – Corpus linguistics – Historical lexicography (pronunciation dictionaries published in the 18th and 19th centuries)
Projects
- DICO/DIACHRO [https://forellis.labo.univ-poitiers.fr/corpus-dico-diachro/] in partnership with FoReLLIS, UR [research unit] 15076, University of Poitiers [https://forellis.labo.univ-poitiers.fr/equipe-a-linguistique/]. Digitization of 18th and 19th century pronunciation dictionaries published in the UK and in the USA.
- Digitized: Bailey (1727), Buchanan (1757a), Buchanan (1757b), Buchanan (1766), Barclay (1774), Sheridan (1780), Walker (1791, [1809]), Stephen Jones (ca 1805)
- Tagged TEI/XML Dictionaries [https://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/DI.html]: Buchanan (1757a), Walker (1791, [1809])
- To be digitized: Newbery (1752, 3rd ed. [1st ed., 1745; 2nd ed. 1748], Kenrick (1773), Wright, (5 vol., 1852-1856), Afzelius (1909), Pierce (1910) + US dictionaries: Worcester (1830, 1846, 1860), Webster (1806, 1820), Morris (1908), Kenyon & Knott (1944).
- Creation of a an interoperable and computer-searchable database of old dictionaries [Python]. Demo at https://videotheque.univ-poitiers.fr/video.php?id=ar1hj59pjzh8vw5zcjtc&link=5swajkajh4klb3a7sw4cl2nnszbvbz
Teaching
2025-2026
Undergraduate program:
- 1st year, phonetics/phonology
- 3rd year, “a phonological history of the English language”
- 3rd year, oral prep class for future secondary school teachers.
Graduate program:
- Master’s degree, 1st year, oral prep class for future secondary school teachers
Publications
À paraître. Zumstein, Franck & Duchet, Jean-Louis. “The emergence of learners’ dictionaries in the 18th century in France and England: Brady’s Dictionnaire de prononciation angloise (1756) and Buchanan’s dictionaries (1757, 1766)”. In Dictionaries as Tools for Language Learning, proceedings of the ICHLL14 conference [https://blog.westminster.ac.uk/ichll2024/]
Nacim Amazouz, Mahdi & Zumstein, Franck (2022). “Using Learner Corpora in Serious Game Design for English Phonology and Pronunciation Teaching”. In Monika Pukli (ed.) Pronunciation matters: Current perspectives on teaching and learning L2 phonology, Ranam n°55. Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, pp. 55-70.
Travelet, Madeline & Zumstein, Franck (2020). “The Northern Cities Vowel Shift in Northern Michigan”. In A. Przewozny, C. Viollain, & S. Navarro (Eds.), The Corpus Phonology of English: Multifocal Analyses of Variation (pp. 200–220). Edinburgh University Press, pp.222-220.
Nacim Amazouz, Mahdi & Zumstein, Franck (2020) “Integrating New Technologies in Language Teaching: Obstacles and Challenges”. In L. H. Dana Di Pardo & J. Bhawana Jain (Eds.), Contemporary Research in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning. Cambridge Scholars Publisher, pp.146-162
Emmanuel Ferragne, Franck Zumstein (2015) « La république d’Irlande ». In Brulard, I.; Carr, P.; Durand, J. La prononciation de l’anglais contemporain dans le monde, partie 2, chapitre 9. Presses Universitaires du Midi, pp.199-214.
Zumstein, Franck (2014) “Are word-stress variants in lexico-phonetic corpora exceptional cases or regular forms?”. In Vandelanotte, Lieven, Kristin Davidse, Caroline Gentens and Ditte Kimps (eds), Recent Advances in Corpus Linguistics: Developing and Exploiting Corpora. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi. pp. 103-122.
Philippe Carré, Nicolas Videau, Sylvie Hanote et Franck Zumstein (2010) « Les préfixes anglais un- et de- : Étude phonétique et acoustique ». In CoReLa (Cognition, Représentation, Language). [https://journals.openedition.org/corela/1081].
Zumstein, Franck (2006). “The Contribution of Computer-Searchable Diachronic Corpora to the Study of Word-Stress Variation. In R. Facchinetti & M. Rissanen (eds.), Corpus-Based Studies of Diachronic English, Linguistic Insight, vol. 31. Bern: Peter Lang. pp. 171-196.