Ali Nirheche

PhD Candidate — Department of Linguistics, UMass Amherst

I'm a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Linguistics Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I'm interested in morphophonology and the organization of the lexicon. My current research investigates how constraint-based models can be used to analyze and learn morphophonological patterns, with an emphasis on phonological variation and exceptionality. I'm also interested in experimental research examining how speakers identify and generalize linguistic patterns to novel words.

I primarily work on Arabic varieties, with a particular focus on Moroccan Arabic — a linguistically rich context shaped by contact with Berber, French, and Spanish. This complex environment has produced variable and exceptional patterns that remain largely undocumented.