Bio: Tajudeen Mamadou Yacoubouis a Ph.D. student in the Rutgers Department of Linguistics. He is primarily interested in the abstract representation and processes of natural language sounds (Phonology) and their physical realization (Phonetics). More specifically, he studies the prosody (tones, stress, intonation) of West African languages, including but not limited to Yoruba (and derived dialects), Baatonum, Fongbe, Dendi, and Zarma. In fact, he is currently working on the interaction of narrow focus with the different levels of the prosodic hierarchy, along with its phonetic cues in Zarma. The study was built on fieldwork he conducted in summer 2018 in Niger and supported by the Center for African Studies’ Graduate Enhancement Grant. His near-future project consists of building a computational model for autosegmental (tone) representations. When he is not figuring out the prosody of natural languages, Dine enjoys writing poetry, spoken words, and playing soccer.