Linguistics Neukom Postdoctoral Fellow Fall 2017

Welcome Neukom Postdoctoral Fellow:

Dr. Hilaria Cruz -- I am a field linguist and a native speaker of San Juan Quiahije Chatino (SJQ), an endangered Zapotecan language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. I received my PhD in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin. My research project is entitled “Chatino, from Oral to Written to Digital: Using Technology to Expedite Transcription, Annotation, and Translation of the Chatino Language.” My work as a Neukom Fellow will create a speech corpus for Forced Alignment and Automatic Speech Recognition technologies for SJQ. These tools will significantly reduce the workload involved in transcribing large collections of speech recordings of Chatino and other endangered languages.  This work will also help create pedagogical materials for documenting, revitalizing, and promoting this endangered language. Beyond advancing the scientific study of the Chatino language and supporting its preservation, my research will effect new and general methods for the study and preservation of complex tonal languages across the linguistic landscape.

We very much look forward to you joining us next fall!