Patrick Das
Hi! I’m Patrick Das, a fourth year PhD student in Linguistics at the University of Colorado Boulder.
I study how human history, geography, and cognition shape patterns of linguistic diversity. My research combines fieldwork, spatial analysis, and typological comparison to understand how languages change under contact — particularly in multilingual, politically complex regions.
My dissertation focuses on Tikhir, a Trans-Himalayan language spoken in eastern Nagaland, India. Working closely with the Tikhir community, I document dialect variation, examine patterns of language shift, and explore how space and place have shaped the language. You can read more about this work here. This research is supported by a 2025 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship.
Some of my other research interests are:
- Areality and contact linguistics
- Linguistic landscapes and translinguistic repertoires
- Noun classification and gender systems
- Modal expressions in language
Outside of linguistics, I enjoy playing chess, making coffee, or spending too much time on Football Manager.