John M. Lipski
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John M. Lipski is an American linguist who is most widely known for his work on Spanish and Portuguese
dialectology Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , ''-logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their assoc ...
and variation. His research also focuses on
Spanish phonology This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the Spanish language. Unless otherwise noted, statements refer to Castilian Spanish, the standard dialect used in Spain on radio and television. For historical development of the sound system ...
, the linguistic aspects of
bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
and code-switching, African influences on Spanish and Portuguese, and
pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
and creole studies. He is currently the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Spanish Linguistics in the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at the
Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...
. He previously served as the head of the same department from 2001 to 2005.


Biography

Lipski studied Spanish and mathematics as an undergraduate at
Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...
(1971). He has stated, however, in casual conversation during his tenure at the University of Houston in the 1980s that he never took a Spanish class, and that he was self-taught in the language. This appears to be the case with Portuguese as well, which Lipski has personally referred to as a "free" language of sorts if one already knows Spanish. So his Spanish studies as an undergraduate must have been rather advanced, or independent studies, as opposed to Spanish I or II and the like. He earned both his MA (1972) and his PhD (1974) in Romance linguistics at the
University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...
, with extensive training in classic Romance
philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
and European
structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
. His doctoral dissertation was a comparative historical phonology of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. Following the completion of his PhD, Lipski worked as a Spanish instructor at Kean College of New Jersey (1973–1975), where his interactions with Cuban and Puerto Rican Spanish speakers would eventually lead him to study Spanish dialectal variation and sociolinguistics. He later worked at
Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
(1975–1981), first as an assistant professor and later as a tenured associate professor (1978–1981). Lipski also worked as an associate professor at the
University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...
(1981–1988), as a professor of Spanish and linguistics at the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
(1988–1992), and as a professor of Spanish linguistics at the
University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
(1992–2000). He currently works as a professor of Spanish linguistics at the
Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...
(2000–present), and he is a core faculty member on Penn State'
Center for Language Science
s
National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
br>PIRE
grant. Lipski is married and has two children.


Bibliography


Books written

''El habla de los Cognos de Panamá en el contexto de la lingüística afrohispánica''. Panamá: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, in press. ''Afro-Bolivian Spanish''. Frankfurt and Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana, 2008. ''Varieties of Spanish in the United States''. Georgetown University Press, 2008. ''A History of Afro-Hispanic Language: Five Centuries, Five Continents''. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ''El español de América''. Madrid: Cátedra, 1996. Japanese translation 2004, Editorial Phoenix. ''Latin American Spanish''. London: Longmans, 1994. ''El español de Malabo: procesos fonéticos/fonológicos e implicaciones dialectológicas''. Madrid/Malabo: Centro Cultural Hispano-Guineano, 1990. ''The Language of the Isleños of Louisiana''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990. ''The Speech of the Negros Congos of Panama: a Vestigial Afro-Hispanic Creole''. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1989. ''Fonética y fonología del español de Honduras''. Tegucigalpa, Editorial Guaymuras, 1987. ''The Spanish of Equatorial Guinea''. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1985. Linguistic Aspects of Spanish-English Language Shifting. Arizona State University, Latin American Studies Center, 1985. (with Eduardo Neale-Silva), ''El español en síntesis''. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1981.


References


External links


John M. Lipski's Homepage (English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipski, John M. Living people Rice University alumni Linguists from the United States Year of birth missing (living people)