# Georgios P. Georgiou

Georgios P. Georgiou is a Greek Cypriot linguist, academic, and author. He is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Nicosia. He is the Associate Head of the Department of Languages and Literature and Director of the Phonetic Lab. He has been awarded the Cyprus Research Award – Young Researcher 2023 in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences by the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation. In 2024, he was elected Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe.
Georgiou's work focuses on the acquisition of speech and language by typical and atypical populations. He authors and coauthors research articles in journals such as Scientific Reports, Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, Applied Acoustics, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders as well as edited volumes including Advances in Second/Foreign Language Acquisition by Palgrave Macmillan, and books such as An Introduction to Issues in General Linguistics.

## Education

He obtained a BA in Greek Philology (2007–2011), an MA in Education (2011–2013), and a PhD in Linguistics (2014–2018) from the University of Cyprus.

## Career

Georgiou began his academic career in 2018 as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Assistant Lecturer of Linguistics at the Department of General and Russian Linguistics of RUDN University. In 2020, he returned to Cyprus to work as an Associate Lecturer of Linguistics at the University of Central Lancashire. The following year, he served as a Postdoctoral Researcher of Speech-Language Disorders at the Department of Rehabilitation Science of the Cyprus University of Technology. From 2021 to 2023, he held the position of Visiting Senior Lecturer of Linguistics at the Department of Foreign Languages of RUDN University. Between 2019 and 2022, he was an Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of Languages and Literature of the University of Nicosia. In 2022, he was elected Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Nicosia.

## Research

Georgiou's work concentrates on speech perception, speech production, and language acquisition. Specifically, he studies the cognitive processes and mechanisms underlying speech and language both in first and second language acquisition across a spectrum of both typical and atypical populations, spanning various age groups, from children to adults. His work integrates diverse methodologies including acoustic analysis of speech sounds, behavioral, psychometric, and neuropsychological testing, and the application of deep and machine learning algorithms.
Georgiou has developed the Universal Perceptual Model (UPM), which supports a universal capacity to learn nonnative sounds across the lifespan and accounts for the difficulties of learners/listeners in the acquisition of nonnative speech sounds. The model creates predictions based on the acoustic and perceptual similarities of sounds and relies on the overlapping degrees of nonnative speech sounds in relation to native ones (complete overlapping, partial overlapping, nonoverlapping) to determine the discrimination of the former sounds.
Georgiou has contributed to the area of developmental language disorder by investigating the phonological, grammatical, and semantic abilities of children, as well as the correlation of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and cognitive variables with speech perception capacities. In addition, his work on atypical populations includes speech acoustics in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (grant awarded by the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation; 2024–2026), and mild cognitive impairment. He also applies machine learning to classify atypical individuals versus typical peers.

## Honors and awards

Georgiou received the Cyprus Research Award – Young Researcher 2023 in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences by the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation. The rationale behind this accolade was, according to the review committee, his consistent production of high-quality research, which is recognized both nationally and internationally, and the excellence of his inter- and intra-disciplinary research, which effectively integrates emerging technologies into his area of expertise, facilitating their application in similar fields. Furthermore, the committee highlighted that the number of his publications in internationally recognized journals exceeds the world average in his field and that the launch of the Phonetic Lab indicates his insight and effective leadership skills.
In 2024, he was unanimously elected Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe as a recognition of his "outstanding scientific achievements", according to the rationale provided by the committee of the organization.

## Selected journal articles

This is an indicative list of Georgiou's peer reviewed journal articles
* Georgiou, G. P., & Theodorou, E. (2025). Voicing Discrimination as a Diagnostic Marker of Developmental Language Disorder. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 73, 101228. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2024.101228
* Georgiou, G. P., Panteli, C., & Theodorou, E. (2024). Speech rate of typical children and children with developmental language disorder in a narrative context. Communication Disorder Quarterly. doi: 10.1177/15257401241271417
* Georgiou, G. P. (2024). Categorization of second-language accents by bilingual and multilingual listeners. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 42(3), 425-438. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12506
* Giannakou, A., & Georgiou, G. P. (2024). Subject position in Greek and Spanish monolingual and bilingual production. Exploring the influence of verb type and definiteness. Language Acquisition. doi: 10.1080/10489223.2024.2371610
* Georgiou, G. P., Giannakou, A., & Alexander, K. (2024). Perception of second language phonetic contrasts by monolinguals and bidialectals: a comparison of competencies. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. doi: 10.1177/17470218241264566
* Georgiou, G. P., & Kaskampa, A. (2024). Differences in voice quality measures among monolingual and bilingual speakers. Ampersand, 12, 100175. doi: 10.1016/j.amper.2024.100175.
* Georgiou, G. P., & Giannakou, A. (2024). Discrimination of second language vowel contrasts and the role of phonological short-term memory and nonverbal intelligence. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 53(9). doi: 10.1007/s10936-024-10038-z
* Georgiou, G. P, & Giannakou A. (2024). Acoustic Characteristics of Greek Vowels Produced by Adult Heritage Speakers of Albanian. Acoustics, 6(1), 257-271. doi: 10.3390/acoustics6010014
* Georgiou, G. P. (2024). Classification of English vowels in terms of Cypriot Greek categories: the role of acoustic similarity between L1 and L2 sounds. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 69(1), 46-62. doi: 10.1017/cnj.2024.1
* Georgiou, G. P. (2023). Comparison of the prediction accuracy of machine learning algorithms in crosslinguistic vowel classification. Scientific Reports, 13, 15594. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-42818-3
* Georgiou, G. P., & Dimitriou, D. (2023). Perception of Dutch vowels by Cypriot Greek listeners: to what extent can listeners' patterns be predicted by acoustic and perceptual similarity? Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 85, 2459-2474. doi: 10.3758/s13414-023-02781-7
* Georgiou, G. P. (2023). Speakers of different L1 dialects with acoustically proximal vowel systems present with similar nonnative speech perception abilities: Data from Greek listeners of Dutch. Speech Communication, 150, 32-40. doi: 10.1016/j.specom.2023.05.003
* Georgiou, G. P., & Theodorou, E. (2023). Abilities of children with developmental language disorders in perceiving phonological, grammatical, and semantic structures. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53, 4483-4487. doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05548-5
* Georgiou, G.P. (2023). Identification of Native Vowels in Normal and Whispered Speech by Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53, 858–862. doi: 10.1007/s10803-020-04702-1
* Georgiou, G. P., & Theodorou, E. (2023). Comprehension of complex syntax by non-English-speaking children with developmental language disorder: a scoping review. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 37(11), 1050-1068. doi: 10.1080/02699206.2022.2135024
* Georgiou, G. P. (2022). The acquisition of /ɪ/–/iː/ is challenging: Perceptual and production evidence from Cypriot Greek speakers of English. Behavioral Sciences, 12(12), 469. doi: 10.3390/bs12120469
* Georgiou, G. P. (2022). Acoustic markers of vowels produced with different types of face masks. Applied Acoustics, 191, 108691. doi: 10.1016/j.apacoust.2022.108691
* Georgiou, G. P. (2022). The impact of auditory perceptual training on the perception and production of English vowels by Cypriot Greek children and adults. Language Learning and Development, 18(4), 379–392. doi: 10.1080/15475441.2021.1977644
* Georgiou, G. P. (2021). How Do Speakers of a Language with a Transparent Orthographic System Perceive the L2 Vowels of a Language with an Opaque Orthographic System? An Analysis through a Battery of Behavioral Tests. Languages, 6(3), 118. doi: 10.3390/languages6030118
* Georgiou, G. P. (2021). Toward a new model for speech perception: The Universal Perceptual Model (UPM) of Second Language. Cognitive Processing, 22(2), 277-289. doi: 10.1007/s10339-021-01017-6
* Georgiou, G. P. (2021). Effects of phonetic training on the discrimination of second language sounds by learners with naturalistic access to the second language. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 50(3), 707-721. doi: 10.1007/s10936-021-09774-3
* Georgiou, G. P., & Themistocleous, C. (2021). Vowel Learning in Diglossic Settings: Evidence from Arabic-Greek Learners. International Journal of Bilingualism, 25(1), 135-150. doi: 10.1177/1367006920945396
* Georgiou, G. P. (2021). Interplay between perceived cross-linguistic similarity and L2 production: Analyzing the L2 vowel patterns of bilinguals. Journal of Second Language Studies, 4(1), 48-65. doi: 10.1075/jsls.19031.geo
* Georgiou, G. P., Perfilieva, N., Denisenko, V, & Novospasskaya, N. (2020). Perceptual realization of Greek consonants by Russian monolingual speakers. Speech Communication, 125, 7-14. doi: 10.1016/j.specom.2020.09.008
* Georgiou, G. P., Perfilieva, N, & Tenizi, M. (2020). Vocabulary size leads to better attunement to L2 phonetic differences: Clues from Russian learners of English. Language Learning and Development, 16(4), 382-398. doi: 10.1080/15475441.2020.1814779
* Georgiou, G. P. (2019). 'Bit' and 'beat' are heard as the same: Mapping the vowel perceptual patterns of Greek-English bilingual children. Language Sciences, 72, 1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.langsci.2018.12.001
* Georgiou, G. P. (2019). EFL teachers' cognitions about pronunciation in Cyprus. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40(6), 538-550. doi:10.1080/01434632.2018.1539090
* Georgiou, G. P. (2018). Discrimination of L2 Greek vowel contrasts: Evidence from learners with Arabic L1 background. Speech Communication, 102, 68-77. doi: 10.1016/j.specom.2018.07.003