This page is no longer being monitored. Please go to our new website for the most current information on the Hub: https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/language-forensics. Otherwise, scroll down or click the ‘NEWS’ icon to browse the Hub’s earlier posts.
Some end of year news for the Hub is that I am finishing up my Research Fellow role, and will be moving into a research and teaching role in the School of Languages and Linguistics. I will be starting that role in January, working in the ESL program which includes teaching the 5 week intensive […]
The Hub had a presence at the Acoustical Society of America conference, which was held in Sydney from Dec 4-8, 2023. I presented some work that Helen and I have been conducting in collaboration with Dr Kirsty McDougall, who is an Assistant Professor of Phonetics at University of Cambridge. Kirsty works on various topics in […]
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have been extremely rapid, and this has become especially evident in 2023. In this blog post, we address the the matter of text-to-speech. Think deepfakes (in this case generated audio) and spoofing (here, identity crime using voices) – but also there are more innocuous uses for the generation of speech, […]
Emotions Affecting Voice Recognition in Criminal Cases: One Small Phonetically-Grounded Investigation Introduction Recognising a speaker by their voice might seem like second nature. If you know a person well at all, you probably have a pretty good idea of what they sound like, and you might even be able to imagine what words would sound […]
This post is a small, informal follow-up experiment to my previous blog post in August, where I examined the ability of the Whisper automatic speech recognition system (ASR) to transcribe neologisms and colloquial language. The results of the previous experiments demonstrated this artificial intelligence system was rather ineffective in transcribing neologisms and colloquial language. In particular, […]
The Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence (School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne) has just advertised two five-year Level B research-only positions. Please find information about the Research Fellow in Forensic Linguistics positions at the link below. The application deadline is Fri 1 December, 2023. https://jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/914515/research-fellow-in-forensic-linguistics-multiple-opportunities Read on for some background about […]
Eades, D., Fraser, H., & Heydon, G. (2023). Forensic Linguistics in Australia: Origins, progress and prospects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McMahon, M., & Fraser, H. (2023). Transcription of indistinct forensic audio: Time for reform. Law Institute of Victoria Journal, (August), 20–23. Fraser, H. (2023). Applied phonetics and phonology. In L. Wei, Z. Hua, & J. […]
On 6 September 2023, Helen Fraser presented to lawyers and forensic scientists at the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences. Here’s the video – and relevant references are below. About the Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence McMahon, M., & Fraser, H. 2023. Transcription of indistinct forensic audio: Time for reform. […]
Helen Fraser recently made an appearance on the Because Language podcast, along with co-authors Diana Eades and Georgina Heydon, to discuss their new publication in the Cambridge Elements in Forensic Linguistics series. You can listen to the forensic linguistics episode of Because Language here (section starts at 1.05). This is the blurb about what to […]
About the author – Will Somers I am a third year Bachelor of Arts student majoring in linguistics and criminology at the University of Melbourne. I have a particular interest in transcription and the potential for artificial intelligence models to be used to advance the efficiency and accuracy of the transcription process. Introduction With the […]
It is not too late to put in an expression of interest for a funded PhD opportunity in The Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence, starting in February 2024. This opportunity is for a topic related to forensic transcription. The first stage of the process is this expression of interest, and shortlisted applicants will […]
The IAFPA conference in Zurich has just finished – and what a great experience it was. Despite the 35-degree heat, participants minds were fully alert, and the program was packed with excellent presentations from established and emerging scholars, including an unprecedented degree of student participation. As usual, the Hub’s colleagues at University of Zurich’s Centre […]
Earlier this year, Australian linguistics professor, Helen Fraser, received a phone call asking whether she could recommend a lipreader to transcribe CCTV footage for use as evidence in the court of law. Fraser told the caller she was unable to do so, but found it an interesting question, so later asked me to investigate the […]
Helen Fraser delivered a webinar to the International Speech Communication Association’s Special Interest Group on Security and Privacy in Speech Communication on 12 June. We had a very engaged and responsive audience, some of whom will be taking the issues forward via ongoing discussion – let us know if you would like to be involved. […]
A new title in Cambridge Elements in Forensic Linguistics is available for free download till 7 June 2023, namely Forensic Linguistics in Australia: Origins, Progress and Prospects by Diana Eades, Helen Fraser and Georgina Heydon. Here is the book announcement circulated by the authors: Cambridge Elements is a newish monograph series publishing concise, original, succinct, authoritative, peer-reviewed, scholarly work […]
Another paper has recently been added to the Frontiers research topic Capturing Talk: The Institutional Practices Surrounding the Transcription of Spoken Language. This paper, called Transcribing and translating forensic speech evidence containing foreign languages—An Australian perspective, is by a colleague of the Hub, RMIT senior lecturer in translating and interpreting Dr. Miranda Lai. It contributes […]
(Last week the Hub gave a presentation at Monash University. Thanks to Prof Kate Burridge, Dr Howie Manns and their colleagues in Monash Linguistics for a wonderful welcome and a delicious lunch. Here are videos of the sections by Debbie Loakes and Lauren Harrington (who has been visiting the Hub from the University of York – now heading […]
The Hub is happy to be presenting in the famous and fun Linguistics in the Pub series at the famous and fun Naughton’s Hotel on Tuesday 28 March 6-8pm. Why not come along and enjoy a drink and some interesting discussion with us? Misunderstanding mishearing: Why linguistic science is needed to cure serious injustice in our […]
On Friday March 24th, Hub visitor Lauren Harrington will talk about Transcription of indistinct audio: are phoneticians at an advantage? This will be an in-person event at The University of Melbourne (Babel Building, rm 407) at, 3.15pm. There will also be an online option (just get in touch with Hub members for the link). Abstract: […]
On Tuesday March 21st, the Hub will be giving a seminar at Monash University: Can the new generation of automatic speech recognition systems solve problems of forensic transcription – and what does the process of answering this question teach us about the human language capacity? Helen Fraser, Debbie Loakes, Lauren Harrington* Research Hub for Language […]
The Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) was founded in 1967, and is said to be “unique in bringing together persons of professional standing from the legal, medical and scientific professions whom have contributed to the advancement or practice of forensic science”. The Hub is pleased to announce that Helen Fraser will be giving a […]
The Hub is known for its pioneering work in forensic transcription – but transcripts are used in many other sectors of society. As well, multiple branches of linguistic science use transcripts as the basis of research (e.g. phonetics, conversation and discourse analysis, language description and documentation, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics – not to mention other branches of […]
The Hub are happy to be back at work in 2023, with many activities planned for the start of the new year and beyond. Wrapping up 2022 In wrapping up the Hub’s activities in 2022, which included a symposium we hosted at The University of Melbourne, a visit to the SocioPhonAus workshop in Brisbane, and various […]
In November and December, the Hub will be presenting at two upcoming conferences. These are: ALS 2022 – The Australian Linguistics Society annual conference, to be held at The University of Melbourne (Nov 30- Dec 2). SST 2022 – The 18th Australasian Speech Science and Technology conference, to be held at ANU in Canberra (Dec […]
In 2018, Helen published a paper in the Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences called ‘Assisting’ listeners to hear words that aren’t there: dangers in using police transcripts of indistinct covert recordings. This paper is highly relevant to our ongoing work in the Research Hub for Language in Forensic Evidence, and we summarise the main findings […]
This week, the Hub travelled to Brisbane for the SocioPhonAus3 conference, held on July 11 and 12. This was hosted by Griffith University, at the Ship Inn on Southbank. A very nice venue, as you can see from our feature image. The small picture below also shows where we had our breaks and meals – […]
In the last month (June 8 and 9, 2022), the Hub ran a symposium called Transcription in Legal Contexts: Problems and Solutions. Day 1 was all about problems, while Day 2 was about solutions. We ran this event on campus at The University of Melbourne, and also had online attendees including many from the U.K […]
As of today, the Hub has a new open access publication – this is an article published in our special issue of Frontiers in Communication, called Does Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) Have a Role in the Transcription of Indistinct Covert Recordings for Forensic Purposes? Motivation for this study This study was motivated by […]
The Hub has had a busy month, with Helen coming to Melbourne (for the first time in two years!). We had some work to do together on a research project (which we will report on soon) and Helen gave two lectures about forensic linguistics in the first year Language course. The first lecture focused on […]
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