Georgia Zellou: Bridging Linguistics, Language Documentation, and Conversational AI

Georgia Zellou and Mohamed Afkir are leading an innovative research and teaching initiative that explores the phonetics and phonology of Tarifit, a Moroccan Amazigh language, while advancing inclusive language technology design. Their work investigates typologically rare structures, speaker variation, and adaptation in human–robot interaction, with implications for sound change theory, models of speech production and perception, and inclusive AI development. In the classroom, they integrate linguistic field methods with human–computer interaction, demonstrating to students language documentation methods and how to build prototype chatbots using conversational AI frameworks. Together, these projects exemplify how linguistic research and teaching can intersect with emerging technologies to support language revitalization, promote digital inclusion, and prepare students to critically engage with AI in multilingual contexts.

More specifically, Tarifit has a very unique linguistic structure that is not common in most of the languages of the world: vowelless words. Dr. Zellou’s team has found that vowelless words in Tarifit are produced with longer aspiration. This lengthening consistently occurred no matter whether the speaker was speaking quickly or slowly. Even though aspiration time within words increased, however, the words themselves were shorter than their vowel-containing counterparts.

Afkir had this to say about their work on vowelless words in Tarifit: “This is something that’s crucial for preserving linguistic diversity, for preserving valuable data from languages at risk of being lost, and for advancing models of speech processing and sound change.

To learn more, reach out to Dr. Zellou or have a look at the following selected publications.

Selected publications:

Afkir M, Zellou G. (2025). The Phonetics of Tarifit: Variation and Change in a Moroccan Amazigh Language. Cambridge University Press.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/phonetics-of-tarifit/5C4BDDA7793A243C249AB7950FE5BDB1

Afkir, M., & Zellou, G. (2025). Vowelless word forms in Tarifit are produced with longer voiceless aspiration intervals. JASA Express Letters, 5(10). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0039470