UM Directory

I am a Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Linguistics Program in the Department of Anthropology. My research interests lie in a variety of areas of linguistics, and I have done research in phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. My doctoral dissertation, based on original fieldwork, focused on the aspectual system of Skwxwú7mesh (a.k.a. Squamish), a Central Salish language spoken in British Columbia, Canada (and related to the Séliš-Ql̓ispé language spoken here in Montana). My interests include language description and analysis (in particular, Indigenous languages of North America and (more recently) underdocumented Bantu languages of East Africa), issues in language documentation and revitalization, data collection and research methodologies in linguistic fieldwork, dialect variation (especially Montana English), tense and aspect systems, valency-in/decreasing morphology, among others. I have experience conducting fieldwork with speakers of Salish languages, Algonquian languages, and East Ruvu Bantu languages of Tanzania. I am particularly interested in dispelling myths about language and promoting an appreciation of linguistic diversity - check out my TEDx talk on this topic!

I'm honored to have been the 2023-2024 Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science (FLoV) at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Read more about Torgny Segerstedt and the Foundation, and an interview that I gave to GU Journalen (full length interview in Swedish, shorter interview in English).

Courses Taught

Spring 2025 Course

• LING 375: Linguistic Ecology & Language Endangerment (Tuesdays & Thursdays 11am-12:20pm LA 302)

Courses I teach (fairly regularly)

• LING 375: Linguistic Ecology & Language Endangerment (Intermediate Writing course; GenEd Group X Cultural and International Diversity)
• LING 470: Linguistic Analysis
• LING 472/572: Syntax
• LING 475/575: Linguistic Field Methods
  • Spring 2021: Lani (Trans New Guinea; Papua)
  • Spring 2019: Kirundi (Bantu; Burundi)
  • Spring 2017: Javanese (Austronesian; Indonesia)
  • Spring 2015: Tajik (Indo-Iranian; Tajikistan)
  • Spring 2013: Gã (Kwa; Ghana)
  • Spring 2011: Georgian (Kartvelian; Georgia)
  • Spring 2009: Blackfoot (Algonquian; US/Canada)
• LING 484/584: North American Indigenous Languages and Linguistics (advanced writing course for Anthropology major and Linguistics major)
• LING 570: Tense and Aspect Systems (a.k.a. Temporal/Aspectual Systems)
• LING 570: Issues in Language Documenation

Courses I teach/have taught (less regularly)

• LING 270: Introduction to Linguistics
• LING 473/573: Language and Culture
• LING 491: Sociolinguistics
• LING 570: Events and States
• LING 570: Language Documentation, Preservation and Revitalization
• LING 570: Number Systems Across Languages

Other past & present teaching activitites

• "Language Myths (and Realities)" for the MOLLI program.
• "Success in American Society: Linguistic & Sociological Perspectives (co-taught with Dr. Daisy Rooks, UM Department of Sociology) for the MOLLI program.
• Global Leadership Initiative (GLI) first-year seminar "Linguistic Diversity: Myths, Realities, Challenges and Solutions".
• I am a UM Pedagogy Project fellow.

Research Interests

• Indigenous languages of North America
• Salish languages
• Algonquian languages
• Bantu languages of East Africa
• Montana dialects of English
• Issues in language documentation, description, and analysis
• Issues in language endangerment and revitalization
• Fieldwork methodologies
• Tense and aspect systems
• Valency increasinǵdecreasing alternations

Projects

• A study of valency-decreasing alternations in East Ruvu Bantu languages (Funded by Vetenskapsrådet The Swedish Research Council)

• Séliš-Ql̓ispé Language Resources

Selected Publications

Dom, Sebastian, Leora Bar-el, Ponsiano Kanijo, and Malin Petzell. Forthcoming. The noncausal/causal alternation in Luguru. To appear in Proceedings of the 24th Afrikanist*innentag. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. Fanego, Axel & Pratchett, Lee (eds.).

Bar-el, Leora and Malin Petzell. 2024. On the behaviour of the Bantu morpheme -ag- in East Ruvu. In Pushing the boundaries: Selected papers from the 51-52 Annual Conference on African Linguistics. James Essegbey, Brent Henderson, Fiona McLaughlin & Michael Diercks (eds.). Berlin: Language Science Press. 227–249. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14038751.

Dom, Sebastian, Leora Bar-el, Ponsiano Kanijo, and Malin Petzell. 2023. The noncausal/causal alternation in Kagulu, an East Ruvu Bantu language of Tanzania. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 44(3). https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2023-2008

Dom, Sebastian, Leora Bar-el, Ponsiano Kanijo & Malin Petzell. 2023. Middle voice in Bantu: in- and detransitivizing morphology in Kagulu. STUF – Language Typology and Universals Volume 76 Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2023-2008

Dom, Sebastian, Leora Bar-el, Ponsiano Kanijo, and Malin Petzell. 2022. Variation in the coding of the noncausal/causal alternation: Causative *-i in East Bantu languages. Linguistique et Langues Africaines Volume 8:2. Special Issue on the noncausal/causal alternation in African languages. Sebastian Dom, Leora Bar-el, Ponsiano Kanijo & Malin Petzell (eds.). https://doi.org/10.4000/lla.4604

Dom, Sebastian, Leora Bar-el, Ponsiano Kanijo, and Malin Petzell. 2022. The noncausal/causal alternation in African languages: An introduction. Linguistique et Langues Africaines Volume 8:2. Special Issue on the noncausal/causal alternation in African languages. Sebastian Dom, Leora Bar-el, Ponsiano Kanijo & Malin Petzell (eds.). https://doi.org/10.4000/lla.4511

Bar-el, Leora & Malin Petzell. 2021. (Im)perfectivity and actionality in East Ruvu Bantu. In T. Crane, J. Nichols and B. Persohn (eds.), STUF – Language Typology and Universals, 74(3-4), 533-559. https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2021-1044.

Bar-el, Leora, Megan. Stark, and Samantha Prins. 2021. Resources for and about Indigenous Languages: Examining Online Collections. Sustaining Indigenous Languages: Connecting Communities, Teachers and Scholars. Lisa Crowshoe, Inge Genee, Mahaliah. Peddle, Joslin Smith and Conor Snoek (eds.). Northern Arizona University. p141-155.

Petzell, Malin, Leora Bar-el and Lotta Aunio (eds.). 2020. The Semantics of Verbal Morphology in Under-described Languages: A Special Issue of Studia Orientalia Electronica Volume 8(3).

Bar-el, Leora. 2018. Another Look at the Salish Stative prefix. In Wa7 xweysás i nqwal’utteniha i ucwalmícw: (He loves the people’s languages): Essays in Honor of Henry Davis. UBC Occasional Papers in Linguistics. Lisa Matthewson, Erin Guntly, Marianne Huijsmans and Michael Rochemont (eds.). Pp 583-596.

Bar-el, Leora. 2017. Fieldworkers and Sociolinguists: What we can learn from each other. Fleur de Ling: Tulane University Working Papers Volume 3 (MIT Working Papers in Linguistics). Lisa Sprowls, Craig Alcantara and Tosin Gbogi (eds.).

Bar-el, Leora, Felton Rosulek, Laura. and Lisa. Sprowls. 2017. Montana English and its Place in the West. Speech in the Western States Volume 2: The Mountain West. Valerie Fridland, Alicia Beckford Wassink, Tyler Kendall and Betsy Evans (eds.). Publication of the American Dialect Society Volume 102(1), Supplement to American Speech Volume 92. Pp 107-138.

Bar-el, Leora. 2015. Documenting and classifying aspectual classes across languages. In Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork. Lisa Matthewson and Ryan Bochnak (eds.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp 75-109.

Professional Experience

• 2020-Present, Professor, Linguistics Program, Department of Anthropology, University of Montana
• 2013-2020, Associate Professor, Linguistics Program, Department of Anthropology, University of Montana
• 2007-2013, Assistant Professor, Linguistics Program, Department of Anthropology, University of Montana
• 2005-2007, Post-Doctoral Teaching and Research Fellow, Endangered Languages Academic Program, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

International Experience

• Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Professor, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (2023-2024)
• Visiting Research Scholar, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (Autumn 2019)
• Visiting Research Scholar, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (May 2017)

Honors / Awards

• Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Professorship, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (2023-2024) - interview in Swedish, shorter interview in English
• Helen and Winston Cox Educational Excellence Award, 2012