About

Joshua Booth is a theoretical phonologist with a special interest in Germanic languages, in particular the mental representation of speech sounds and their role in historical language change. He completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford in 2023, with his thesis drawing on manuscript evidence to investigate the development of the German phonological system from the mediæval to the modern period. Following his doctorate, he held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Oxford’s Language and Brain Laboratory, using experimental psycholinguistic methods to explore the ways in which phonological structures are represented and processed in the minds of present-day speakers. He is currently Assistant Professor in German Linguistics in the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages & Linguistics, where his work continues to combine theoretical phonology, historical linguistics and experimental approaches. Recent research has explored the structural consequences of historical language change and their impact on modern speakers, particularly speakers of German and other closely related Germanic languages.