Dr Chris Montgomery is a Senior Lecturer in Dialectology at the University of Sheffield, where he researches how people perceive, interpret, and react to different accents and dialects. His work explores what regional speech means to ordinary listeners, how people make judgements about voices, and how language connects with place, identity, class, culture, and belonging.

Chris has developed new methods for studying accent perception in real time, including approaches that track which specific features of speech listeners notice as they hear them. His research has focused particularly on the north of England and southern Scotland, and he has a long-standing interest in folk linguistics, language attitudes, and the social meanings attached to accent and dialect.

He is currently involved in projects on dialects and artificial intelligence, including work with ICS on how AI systems engage with regional speech and linguistic diversity. He also leads the UK Swear Map project, which explores regional swearing, taboo language, slang, offensiveness, and the ways people use colourful language to express identity, humour, anger, intimacy, and belonging.

Across his work, Chris is interested in what everyday ideas about language can tell us about wider social life, from regional pride and prejudice to the ways technology, culture, and politics shape how we hear one another.