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People

Marianna Di Paolo
Ph.D. (Director)

Dr. Marianna Di Paolo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, and a Research Associate at the National Museum of Natural History (the Smithsonian).  She was the founding Chair of the University of Utah’s Department of Linguistics, and is currently an Emeritus in that department.  She is the Director of the Shoshoni Language Project at the University of Utah, a project that begin in collaboration with Mauricio Mixco.  

Dr. Di Paolo’s first language is a dialect of Italian, having been raised in a small, immigrant town in Colorado.  She began to learn English before starting elementary school.  Her love of languages and linguistic diversity, and her appreciation of the importance of language to her own identity began in her childhood home.  She received a B.A. with honors at the University of Colorado Boulder, and trained as a teacher of Spanish and English as a Second Language.  Her Ph.D. is in Linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin

As a sociolinguist her research focuses on sociophonetics; variation and change in Western American English and Shoshoni; and on the documentation and revitalization of the Shoshoni language.  Her recent publications include “The Peripatetic History of ME *ɛ:” (with A. Faber & C.T. Best, 2010), Sociophonetics: a Student’s Guide (co-edited with M. Yaeger-Dror, 2011 Routledge), and Languages and Dialects in the U.S.: Focus on Diversity and Linguistics (co-edited with A.K. Spears, 2014 Routledge).  

In addition to serving on and chairing a number of committees at the University of Utah, she has been a member of the Advisory Board of LinguistList, the Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), and since 2003 has served on the Utah State Supreme Court Committee on Model Utah Jury Instructions-Civil. In 2003 she chaired the LSA’s Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics.  She launched the Best Practices in Sociophonetics Workshops in 2004, typically offered each year at the New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference or at the LSA Linguistics Institute.

Jennifer Mitchell M.A.(Project Manager)

Jennifer L. Mitchell is the Project Manager for the Shoshoni Language Project in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Utah.  Scholarships, Teaching Assistantships, and Research Assistantships awarded to Mrs. Mitchell throughout her academic career enabled her to obtain a M.A. in Linguistics, with an exploratory thesis focused on historical developments in Shoshoni phonology.  Mrs. Mitchell strives to bridge her background in higher education with a solid knowledge of research administration and grant management in order to meet the varied goals of indigenous communities, particularly youth. 

Present and Past Collaborators

(in alphabetical order)

Abdulaziz Alzoubi
Sarah Arnoff
Derron Borders
Sarah Braden
Samuel Broncho
Margene Bullcreek
Cora-Joelle Ahweesho Burchett
Norm Cavanaugh
Xinling Chen
Beverly Crum
Earl Crum
Gene Deal
Daniel Dixon
Dirk Elzinga

Rai Farrelly
Genevieve Fields
Amanda Francom
Nancy Garcia
Laurie (Gibson) Caskey
Drusilla Gould
Delphina Gould
Boyd Graham
Trent Griffith
Lindsay Hansen
Bryan J. Hudson
Julia James
Shakea Jim
Lisa Johnson
Rosie Jones
Arloa Kelly
Tamrika Khvtisiashvili

Eric Komperud
Jeanne Lachowski
Bernice Lalo
Alexus Leyva
Anthony Maggio
Garrett Malotte
Jelena Marcovic
Karen Marsh
Jay (Justin) Martin
Katherine Matsumoto-Gray
Miranda McCarvel
John McLaughlin
Mauricio Mixco
Nyoka Morris
Elwood Mose

Vivian Ngai
Neil Olsen
Jeff Pynes
Amanda Rabideau
Esperanza Reyes
Ruby Ridesatthedoor
Rupert Steele
James Sewell
Rob Sykes
Stephanie Tabibian
Helen Timbimboo
Jackleyn Van Buren
Debbie Wager

List of SYLAP participants

Last Updated: 6/7/21