I am Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong, and I study what happens when languages meet. My research centers on creoles, lingua francas and little-described languages of Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia, always following the same thread: how do ordinary speakers, moving between languages every day, reshape grammar, pronunciation and habits of conversation? I am interested in what these changes tell us about the people and the societies that produce them, and about the nature of language itself. Working alongside collaborators across four continents keeps giving me new answers, and raising new challenges.
