HELLO, I'M
Gil.
(You can also call me Diana)
I'm a linguist, currently pursuing my MA at the University of Toronto.
About Me
I grew up in southeastern New Hampshire, went to high school in York County, Maine, and relocated to Toronto for my undergrad. I was interested in studying language from a young age, and the education I've received at U of T has ignited and focused my desire to pursue a career in academic linguistics. My research interests include variationist sociolinguistics/dialectology, minority languages (especially Irish), and phonological systems. I also have a particular focus on statistical and quantitative approaches to linguistic research.
Education
2017–2022
University of Toronto – Toronto, ON
Honours Bachelor of Arts; Linguistics (Specialist)
Cumulative GPA: 3.78/4.0
Selected Courses:​
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LIN331: Syntactic Theory
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LIN322: Phonological Theory
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LIN405: Advanced Quantitative Methods in Linguistics
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SPA424: Experimental Approaches in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
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LIN497: Irish Consonant Mutations (Individual Project)
Academic Work Experience
Summer 2020
Research Opportunity Program, Faculty of Arts and Science
Worked as part of an undergraduate team assisting Professor Sali Tagliamonte and PhD candidate Katharina Pabst. Contributed to transcription of sociolinguistic interviews, extraction of relevant tokens, and coding of tokens for later analysis regarding use of both archaic predicates and directional prepositions in northern Maine and rural Ontario.
Summer 2020
LEME Assistant, Department of English
Worked under Professor Emeritus Ian Lancashire to contribute to the Lexicons of Middle English database. Responsibilities included transcription of 17th and 18th century essays on English etymology and coding essays using LEME coding guidelines.
2013-2017
Berwick Academy – South Berwick, ME
Member of Cum Laude Society, National Spanish Honor Society
2022-2023
University of Toronto – Toronto, ON
Masters of Arts; Linguistics​
Skills & Languages
Data Analysis
Microsoft Excel & Google Sheets
R
Python
Transcription and Coding
AntConc
ELAN
Phonetic Analysis
Praat
Audacity
English
Native speaker.
Spanish
Fluent.
French
Heritage speaker, intermediate proficiency.
Irish
Intermediate proficiency.
Conference Activity
Papers
2022. Hamel, D. "A Phonetic Analysis of Irish Consonant Mutation." Paper presented at the Toronto Undergraduate Linguistics Conference (online). University of Toronto, March 5.
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2021. Hamel, D. “Irish Consonant Mutations in English Loanwords.” Paper presented at the Toronto Undergraduate Linguistics Conference (online). University of Toronto, March 6.
2021. Hamel, D. “Irish Consonant Mutations in English Loanwords.” Paper presented at the Western Interdisciplinary Student Symposium on Language Research (online). University of Western Ontario, March 5.
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Posters
2020. *Hamel, D., *Injac, M., *Locke, R., *Wang, Y., Pabst, K. & Tagliamonte, S. A. Up to Parry Sound and out to Aroostook County: Comparing prepositions in Northern Ontario and Northern Maine. ROP Research Fair. University of Toronto, October.
*Undergraduate co-author
Manuscripts in preparation
2022. Hamel, D. “Acceptability of [V+N] and [N+N] compounds in Spanish.” Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Toronto.
2022. Hamel, D. “A Phonetic Analysis of Irish Consonant Mutation.” Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto.
WHERE I SHINE
Student Honors Society
Omega Professional Fraternity
Riverside Campus Impact Award
Creative Writing
Photography
Travel
Cooking
Yoga
Reading
Awards
John Gardner Scholarship
University of Toronto Scholar
Irwin Hilliard Scholarship
Interests
Roleplaying Games
Programming
Theatre
Cooking
Writing
Dialect Coaching
Selected Writing
Academic Work
Irish Consonant Mutation in English Loanwords (2020)
My term paper for LIN322: Phonological Theory, taught by Professor Keren Rice. I analyzed data from Stenson (1990) in order to do an Optimality Theory analysis of which English loanwords in Irish do and do not undergo initial consonant mutations. This draft (which includes some formatting changes, a couple of new footnotes, and a reference I forgot to cite in the first version) was prepared in November 2021 for publication in Western Papers in Linguistics.
Irish Consonant Mutation in English Loanwords (2021)
A presentation based on the above paper, which I presented at TULCON and WISSLR.
An Overview of the y--prefix in Dene Languages (2021)
My term paper for LIN409: Structure of a Specific Language, also taught by Professor Keren Rice. I examined grammars from ten Dene languages in order to compare and contrast how the third-person subject/object prefix /y - / behaves and appears across different branches of the family.
Personal Projects
Guide for Italian Accents
An accent-coaching guide I put together when I was hired as the dialect coach for a production of the musical Nine. Unfortunately, the show ended up being cancelled due to the pandemic, but I'm still proud of this rough draft. My vision was that it would serve as a reference material for our actors in order to complement one-on-one and group dialect coaching sessions.