Faculty

Biography

Jeremy Coburn has a primary research focus on the phonetics and phonology of African languages. Using traditional fieldwork methodologies and novel laboratory techniques, he investigates the complex acoustics and articulations of non-pulmonic consonants, i.e., clicks, ejectives, and implosives. His dissertation described the sound system of Hadza, a language isolate spoken in north-central Tanzania, and highlighted recent declines in the language's vitality. Jeremy adopts a community-based, community-focused approach to work in collaboration with the Hadza community to bolster intergenerational language transmission.

Courses Offered (subject to change)

• LING 110:  Intro to Linguistic Analysis
• LING 210(W)/410:  Intro to Language Sound Systems
• LING 227/427:  Phonetics
• LING 237/437:  Phonology

Selected Publications

• Coburn, Jeremy. 2024. The Hadza Language: Vitality, Phonetics, and Phonology. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University.
• Coburn, Jeremy. 2025. Language Endangerment and Vitality Among the Hadzabe of Tanzania. In Korangy, Alireza & Gutova, Evgeniya (eds.), The Handbook of Multilingualism, Identity, and Language Endangerment in Africa. Springer. 131–152.
• Coburn, Jeremy & Bonny Sands & Richard Griscom & Andrew Harvey. Forthcoming. Tonal Patterns of Hadza Nouns. In the Proceedings of the 10th World Congress of African Linguistics.
• Harvey, Andrew, Richard Griscom, & Jeremy Coburn. 2026. A sketch of Hadza grammar. Studies in African Linguistics 55(1–2). 58–101. https://journals.flvc.org/sal/article/view/135198
• Coburn, Jeremy, Anne-Maria Fehn, Andrew Harvey, Kirk Miller, & Bonny Sands. In press. Placeholders in selected hunter-gatherer languages from Africa. In Hennecke, I., T. Seraku & W. Mihatsch (eds.), Placeholders: Exploring Uncharted Territories (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 412). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Expected 2027.