Linguistics & Research
Club activities, elective coursework, and a sociolinguistic study on Nü Guoyin.
Glottologia — Linguistics Club
I founded Glottologia in 10th grade to promote linguistics as an underappreciated discipline. The club has since grown to 75+ members, with over 8 competing in two IOLC contests and earning a Distinction Award at its highest.
Constructed Language Workshop
We collaboratively designed a conlang, from phoneme inventory to basic morphology and syntax.
Linguistic Games — World Top 4
We played linguistic games in the school club and earned an impressive world 4th place.
IOLC China — Chongqing Finals
We traveled together to Chongqing for the International Linguistics Olympiad China national finals.
Elective Course: Linguistics and NLP
This one‑semester elective is split into two halves: the first introduces linguistics, and the second approaches and explains NLP from a linguistics perspective. In the linguistics half, I use playful examples to explain language phenomena and theory—for instance, the evolution of the Latin alphabet to illustrate phonographic writing. In the NLP half, we begin with the field’s first lecture and trace the history and milestones of NLP.
Linguistics — Alphabet Evolution
Explaining writing systems with the Latin alphabet’s evolution as a playful, concrete example.
NLP — History and Foundations
Introducing NLP from a linguistics angle, starting with the first lecture and the field’s historical development.
Phonological Variation and Gender Performance: A Sociolinguistic Study of the “Nü Guoyin” Phenomenon in Beijing Youth Speech
Abstract
The phenomenon known as Nǚ Guóyīn (“female national pronunciation”) refers to the fronting of palatal initials [tɕ], [tɕʰ], and [ɕ] to alveolar [ts], [tsʰ], and [s]. Historically documented in Beijing since the 1920s, it was strongly associated with educated young women and explained through aesthetic, dialectal, or intimacy-based accounts. Yet little research has examined its contemporary status under changing gender norms and digital media environments.
This study investigates Nǚ Guóyīn among 44 Beijing middle and high school students using speech samples, surveys, and interviews. Results show that 40.9% of participants employed fronted variants, including 26.1% of male speakers, a sharp contrast with earlier findings of exclusively female use. Most users were unaware of their pronunciations, underscoring its unconscious character.
The findings reveal that Nǚ Guóyīn persists but with shifting indexicalities, serving as a resource for both genders in youth identity performance and raising new questions about an emergent “male national pronunciation.”