Mikhael Hayes

I’m a PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I’m interested in phonology, poetry, Basque, and history.

Presentations

  • Poetic Rhyme as a Tier-Based Strictly Local Constraint with Scott Nelson. Poster. LSA Annual Meeting (New Orleans). January 2026.
  • Aspiration and its historical sources: Quantifying aspiration in Zuberoan Basque with José Ignacio Hualde. Talk. ICHB1 (University of the Basque Country). November 2025.
  • Computing Rhyme. Subregular Morphophonology Workshop (Rutgers). Talk. November 2025.
  • Aspiration and its historical sources: Quantifying aspiration in Zuberoan Basque. Poster. MidPhon (Indiana University). October 2025.
  • Tell it to me straight: Refusals in comparative pragmatics. Talk. PLL (Indiana University). November 2024.

Papers

  • Computing rhyme: a tier-based strictly local approach to poetic rhyme as harmony with Scott Nelson (in progress)
  • Sounds, the same but different: a tier-based strictly local unification of English rhyme and Chinese tonal contrast in poetry (submitted)
  • Quantifying aspiration in Zuberoan Basque with José Ignacio Hualde (submitted)

Alphabetter app for IPA input

I built a free app for macOS. Check it out on GitHub.