About Me
About
I am an MA by Research student in Linguistics at the National University of Singapore (NUS). My research interests focus on language contact in Yue and related Sinitic languages, alongside typological variation in Sinitic varieties and digital linguistic infrastructure for Yue varieties.
My academic work is grounded in descriptive and historical linguistics, with computational methods used as research infrastructure: collecting and cleaning corpus data, organizing lexical resources, building dictionary infrastructure, and developing tools that make Yue language data easier to search, type, annotate, and share.
Research Interests
- Sinitic linguistics on Yue (Cantonese), focusing on language contact
- Typological variation in Sinitic varieties
- Digital linguistic infrastructure for Yue varieties, including corpora and romanization
- Corpus linguistics, lexical-resource development, and language technology for under-resourced languages
Computational Methods
I use technical skills as research infrastructure rather than as a separate research identity. My work has involved:
- collecting, cleaning, and structuring web-based Chinese and Cantonese text data
- building Python workflows for corpus parsing, filtering, and lexical data preparation
- developing dictionary and input-method resources for Cantonese and Pan-Cantonese projects
- supporting open-source language technology projects with Git-based collaborative workflows
Selected Projects
- TypeDuck: Cantonese input method and multilingual dictionary project for Cantonese learners, including IME algorithm server and dictionary UI work.
- Jyutping++: extended romanization and transcription work for Yue varieties.
- CanCLID: corpus, language-model, classifier, IME, and Common Voice infrastructure work.
- Lingnaam Jyutjam: Pan-Cantonese Dictionary, Yue classification discussion, Early-Qing Cantonese phonology, and Jyutping++ work.
Contact
- NUS Email: zinan.liang@u.nus.edu
- Personal Email: liangzinan21@hotmail.com
- GitHub: TsinamLeung