Professor of Spanish Linguistics
Texas State U
San Marcos
Biographical Sketch: My research centers on language contact, change, and borrowing in borderland communities. I focus is evidence and practices of language contact and the contexts of the language practices between Romance and Semitic languages (mostly Andalusí-Arabic) among medieval Iberian communities. Specifically, I analyze the linguistic practices of ´hybrid´ communities such as the Mozarabs (Arabized-Christians), Mudejars (Christianized-Muslims), and Moriscos (Muslim Converts) living along borderland areas in Medieval Iberia. I compare the linguistic experiences of these multilingual communities in the Mediterranean to those of Spanish-speaking or people of Spanish linguistic heritage along borderland communities between the US and Mexico. My interest in the linguistic challenges and opportunities these communities in the early Middle Ages and in the Early Modern period has led me to think about how patterns of minorization and linguistic segregation are repeated in contemporary contexts and my current digital humanities project titled Minority and Minoritized Languages and Cultures.