Ali Nirheche [ʕali niʁəʃ]

I'm a fourth-year PhD student 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 patterns of 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, which provides a linguistically rich context due to contact with languages like Berber, French, and Spanish, making Moroccan Arabic a compelling subject for linguistic research. This complex linguistic environment has produced variable and exceptional linguistic patterns that remain largely undocumented.

Research Interests