Pamela Munro | |
---|---|
Born | May 23, 1947 |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of California, San Diego |
Academic advisors | Margaret Langdon |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Linguist |
Sub-discipline | Native American languages |
Institutions | University of California,Los Angeles |
Pamela Munro (born May 23,1947 [1] ) is an American linguist who specializes in Native American languages. She is a distinguished research professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of California,Los Angeles,where she has held a position since 1974. [2]
She earned her PhD in 1974 from the University of California,San Diego,where her graduate adviser was Margaret Langdon. [3] Her dissertation,titled Topics in Mojave Syntax, was published by Garland in 1976. [4]
Her research has concentrated on all aspects of the grammars of indigenous languages of the Americas,most recently focusing on the Chickasaw (Muskogean;Oklahoma),Garifuna (Arawakan;Central America),Imbabura Quichua (Quechuan;Ecuador),Tongva (Uto-Aztecan;Los Angeles Basin),and Tlacolula Valley Zapotec (Zapotecan;Central Oaxaca,Mexico) languages. She has published numerous articles and books, [5] and was instrumental in the creation of dictionaries for San Lucas QuiaviníZapotec, [6] Chickasaw and Wolof. She is also the compiler of a series of books on college slang,Slang U. [7]
Munro was named to be the Ken Hale Professor at the 2019 LSA Linguistic Institute held at UC-Davis. [8]
Mobilian Jargon was a pidgin used as a lingua franca among Native American groups living along the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico around the time of European settlement of the region. It was the main language among Native tribes in this area, mainly Louisiana. There is evidence indicating its existence as early as the late 17th to early 18th century. The Native groups that are said to have used it were the Alabama, Apalachee, Biloxi, Chacato, Pakana, Pascagoula, Taensa, Tunica, Caddo, Chickasaw, Houma, Choctaw, Chitimacha, Natchez, and Ofo. The name is thought to refer to the Mobile Indians of the central Gulf Coast, but did not originate from this group; Mobilian Jargon is linguistically and grammatically different from the language traditionally spoken by the Mobile Indians.
Wolof is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Wolof people in much of the West African subregion of Senegambia that is split between the countries of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Unlike most other languages of its family, Wolof is not a tonal language.
Robert D. Van Valin Jr. is an American linguist and the principal researcher behind the development of Role and Reference Grammar, a functional theory of grammar encompassing syntax, semantics, and discourse pragmatics. His 1997 book Syntax: structure, meaning and function is an attempt to provide a model for syntactic analysis which is just as relevant for languages like Dyirbal and Lakhota as it is for more commonly studied Indo-European languages.
The Choctaw language, spoken by the Choctaw, an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, US, is a member of the Muskogean language family. Chickasaw is a separate but closely related language to Choctaw.
The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of indigenous languages of the Americas, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ancestry of the Ute language of Utah and the Nahuan languages of Mexico.
The Chickasaw language is a Native American language of the Muskogean family. It is agglutinative and follows the word order pattern of subject–object–verb (SOV). The language is closely related to, though perhaps not entirely mutually intelligible with, Choctaw. It is spoken by the Chickasaw tribe, now residing in Southeast Oklahoma, centered on Ada.
Victoria Alexandra Fromkin was an American linguist who taught at UCLA. She studied slips of the tongue, mishearing, and other speech errors, which she applied to phonology, the study of how the sounds of a language are organized in the mind.
Larry M. Hyman is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in phonology and has particular interest in African languages.
The Tongva language is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language formerly spoken by the Tongva, a Native American people who have lived in and around modern day Los Angeles for centuries. It has not been a language of everyday conversation since the 1940s. The Gabrielino people now speak English but a few are attempting to revive their language by using it in everyday conversation and ceremonial contexts. Presently, Gabrielino is also being used in language revitalization classes and in some public discussion regarding religious and environmental issues. Tongva is closely related to Serrano. The names of several cities and neighborhoods in Southern California are of Tongva origin, and include Pacoima, Tujunga, Topanga, Azusa, Cahuenga in Cahuenga Pass and Cucamonga in Rancho Cucamonga.
The Zapotec languages are a group of around 50 closely related indigenous Mesoamerican languages that constitute a main branch of the Oto-Manguean language family and are spoken by the Zapotec people from the southwestern-central highlands of Mexico. A 2020 census reports nearly half a million speakers, with the majority inhabiting the state of Oaxaca. Zapotec-speaking communities are also found in the neighboring states of Puebla, Veracruz, and Guerrero. Labor migration has also brought a number of native Zapotec speakers to the United States, particularly in California and New Jersey. Most Zapotec-speaking communities are highly bilingual in Spanish.
Una Canger is a Danish linguist specializing in languages of Mesoamerica. She has published mostly about the Nahuatl language with a particular focus on the dialectology of Modern Nahuatl, and is considered among the world's leading specialists in this area. She held tenure at the University of Copenhagen, leading the department for Native American Languages and Cultures until she reached the age of 70 in 2008 and was forced into retirement. In 2012 she was awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for her contributions to the study of Mexican culture. In 2005 she received the teaching prize of Copenhagen University, the Harald.
The Triqui, or Trique, languages are a family of Oto-Manguean spoken by 30,000 Trique people of the Mexican states of Oaxaca and the state of Baja California in 2007. They are also spoken by 5,000 immigrants to the United States. Triqui languages belong to the Mixtecan branch together with the Mixtec languages and Cuicatec.
Mohave or Mojave is the native language of the Mohave people along the Colorado River in northwestern Arizona, southeastern California, and southwestern Nevada. Approximately 70% of the speakers reside in Arizona, while approximately 30% reside in California. It belongs to the River branch of the Yuman language family, together with Quechan and Maricopa.
Pied-piping with inversion is a special word order phenomenon found in some languages, such as those in the Mesoamerican linguistic area.
Robert A. Blust was an American linguist who worked in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology. He was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Blust specialized in the Austronesian languages and made major contributions to the field of Austronesian linguistics.
Margaret Langdon was a US linguist who studied and documented many languages of the American Southwest and California, including Kumeyaay, Northern Diegueño (Ipai), and Luiseño.
Tlacolula Valley Zapotec or Valley Zapotec, known by its regional name Dizhsa, and formerly known by the varietal name Guelavia Zapotec is a Zapotec language of Oaxaca, Mexico.
Hilda Judith Koopman is a linguist who does research and fieldwork in the areas of syntax and morphology. She is a professor in the department of Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is the director of the SSWL database. The SSWL, which she together with Dennis Shasha inherited from Chris Collins at New York University NYU, is an open-ended database of syntactic, morphological, and semantic properties.
David William Lightfoot is an American linguist who served both as assistant director, of the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences from 2005 to 2009, and as the President of the Linguistic Society of America from 2010 to 2011. As of 2024, he is Emeritus Professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. He is the founder of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Maryland. Lightfoot is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a fellow of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA). He is also a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. Lightfoot has been a Guest Professor of linguistics at the Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) since 2016.
Felipe H. Lopez is a Zapotec-language scholar and writer.