About
Specialization:
Education:
Bio:
Projects:
Publications:
Courses:
Office Hours: Spring 2025
Typological, functional, and community-based approaches to phonology, morphology, syntax, historical linguistics, language documentation, lexical semantics, lexicography, language and culture, especially regarding Otomanguean languages spoken in Mexico and California
Education:
2014 Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin
Bio:
I am Associate Professor of linguistics. My research involves linguistic theory and description informed by diachronic and typological perspectives. I am a field linguist who is interested in all levels of linguistic structure and who approaches language in its social and cultural context, focusing on less-studied languages, especially the Otomanguean languages of Mexico (especially Chatino, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Mè'phàà).
For a detailed biography of how I became a linguist, see this post from the LINGUIST List's 2015 fund drive.
Projects:
JSILO -- Justicia Social de Intérpretes de Lenguas Originaria
MILPA -- Mexican Indigenous Language Promotion and Advocacy
Talleres de Lenguas Otomangues (2013--2019)
Inflectional classes
Typology of tone
Play language (ludlings)
A grammar of Zenzontepec Chatino
Comparative reconstruction of proto-Chatino, proto-Zapotecan, and proto-Mixtec
Information structure and grammar
Publications:
2025. Campbell, Eric W. & George Aaron Broadwell. The Zapotecan languages. In Sören Wichmann (ed.), The languages and linguistics of Mexico and Northern Central America: A comprehensive guide, 457‒510. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110421705-010
2024. Bax, Anna, Mary Bucholtz, Eric W. Campbell, Alexia Z. Fawcett, Inî G. Mendoza, Simon L. Peters, Griselda Reyes Basurto. MILPA: A community-centered linguistic collaboration supporting diasporic Mexican Indigenous (Indígena) languages in California. Language Documentation & Conservation 18: 148–175. https://hdl.handle.net/10125/74804
2024. Constituency in Zenzontepec Chatino. In Adam J.R. Tallman, Sandra Auderset & Hiroto Uchihara (eds.), Constituency and convergence in the Americas, 367–418. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13208554
2024. Ka Yau Lai, Ryan; Martín Gabriel Ruiz & Eric W. Campbell. 2024. Demostrativos y la coherencia discursiva en el P’urhépecha de Comachuén. In Guillem Belmar, Noemy Condori Arias & Chun-Jan Young (eds.), Proceedings of the 26th Workshop on American Indigenous Languages. Santa Barbara: Department of Linguistics, University of California, Santa Barbara. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K1qspIjweZvEq0ACO4sDUkswv7r2erBQ/view
2024. Ventayol-Boada, Albert, John Cano, Carmen Hernández Martínez, Eric W. Campbell. Digital free-to-use technologies for language maintenance in California's Central Coast Ñuu Savi (Mixtec) diaspora. Living Languages 3(2): 18–52. https://doi.org/10.7275/livinglanguages.2029
2024. Auderset, Sandra & Eric W. Campbell. A Mixtec sound change database. Journal of Open Humanities Data 10(24): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.184
2024. Colectivo MILPA. Promoción y Apoyo para Lenguas Indígenas de México (MILPA) en California. Ichan Tecolotl 35, núm 379. ISSN 2683-314X. https://tinyurl.com/3u3tankv
2024. Salazar, Jeremías; Griselda Reyes Basurto; Guillem Belmar; Simon L. Peters & Eric W. Campbell. Justicia lingüística y procesos de documentación: Traducciones para informar a la comunidad Ñuu Savi sobre el COVID-19. Living Languages 3(1): 263‒288. https://doi.org/10.7275/livinglanguages.2009
2023. Campbell, Eric W. & Griselda Reyes Basurto. El Tu’un Savi (mixteco) en California: Documentación y activismo lingüístico. In Marcela San Giacomo, Fidel Hernández & Michael Swanton (eds.), Estudios sobre lenguas mixtecanas, 399‒431. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
2023. Coreference constructions in Zenzontepec Chatino. In Katarzyna Janic, Nicoletta Puddu & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), Reflexive constructions in the world’s languages, 623–647. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7874976
2023. Ávila, Salustia; Javier García; Abigail Hernández; José Mendoza; Jeremías Salazar; Guillem Belmar & Eric W. Campbell. Justicia Social de Intérpretes de Lenguas Originarias: Estamos aquí para proveer el apoyo para un cambio. In Jordan A.G. Douglas-Tavani & Guillem Belmar (eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Workshop on American Indigenous Languages. Santa Barbara: University of California, Santa Barbara. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gGrMSgkMhjbPmV-5tyHQ_jC1bHrPyhso/view
2023. Auderset, Sandra; Simon J. Greenhill; Christian T. DiCanio & Eric W. Campbell. Subgrouping in a ‘dialect continuum’: A Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the Mixtecan language family. Journal of Language Evolution 20: 1‒31. https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzad004
2022. Bucholtz, Mary; Eric W. Campbell; Teresa Cevallos; Veronica Cruz; Alexia Z. Fawcett; Bethany Guerrero; Katie Lydon; Inî G. Mendoza; Simon L. Peters & Griselda Reyes Basurto. Researcher positionality in linguistics: Lessons from undergraduate experiences in community-centered collaborative research. Language & Linguistics Compass, e12495. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12495
2022. Salazar, Jeremías; Guillem Belmar; Alonso Vásquez-Aguilar & Eric W. Campbell. Pronombres personales en Sàꞌán Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ. En Jordan. A.G. Douglas-Tavani & Guillem Belmar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Workshop on American Indigenous Languages. Santa Barbara: Department of Linguistics, University of California, Santa Barbara. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NQ0TXwzagODdcFtOupCn0RVCt_vUQEBd/view
2021. Why is tone change still poorly understood, and how might documentation of less-studied tone languages help? In Patience Epps; Danny Law & Na’ama Pat-El (eds.), Historical linguistics and endangered languages: Exploring diversity in language change (Routledge Series in Historical Linguistics), 15‒40. New York: Routledge.
2021. Salazar, Jeremías; Guillem Belmar; Catherine Scanlon; Giorgia Troiani & Eric W. Campbell. Bridging diaspora: Technology in the service of the revitalization of Sàꞌán Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ (Mixtec). In Eda Derhemi (ed.), Endangered Languages and Diaspora - XXV Annual Conference Proceedings, 176‒185. Tirana, Albania: Foundation for Endangered Languages / QSPA.
2021. Information structure and the syntax of Zenzontepec Chatino relative clauses. In Enrique L. Palancar; Roberto Zavala Maldonado & Claudine Chamoreau (eds.), Relative clause structure in Mesoamerican languages, 194‒227 Leiden: Brill.
2021. Campbell, Eric W.; Griselda Reyes Basurto & Carmen Hernández Martínez. Language revitalization and academic institutions: refocusing linguistic field methods courses. In Justyna Olko & Julia Sallabank (eds.), Revitalizing endangered languages: A practical guide, 176‒177. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2021. Reyes Basurto, Griselda; Carmen Hernández Martínez & Eric W. Campbell. What is community? Perspectives from the Mixtec diaspora in California. In Justyna Olko & Julia Sallabank (eds.), Revitalizing endangered languages: A practical guide, 100‒102. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2021. Hernández Martínez, Carmen; Eric W. Campbell & Griselda Reyes Basurto. Capsule: MILPA (Mexican Indigenous Language Promotion and Advocacy): A community-centered linguistic collaboration supporting Indigenous Mexican languages in California. In Justyna Olko & Julia Sallabank (eds.), Revitalizing endangered languages: A practical guide, 216‒217. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2021. On Zapotecan glottal stop, and where (not) to reconstruct it. In Anna M. Babel and Mark A. Sicoli (eds.), Contact, structure, and change: A Festschrift in honor of Sarah G. Thomason, 349‒382. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing.
2020. Probing phonological structure in play language: speaking backwards in Zenzontepec Chatino. Phonological Data & Analysis 2(1): 1‒21.
2019. Layered complexity in Zenzontepec Chatino verbal inflectional classes. Amérindia 41: 39‒74.
2018. Una mirada al desarrollo fonológico del protochatino. In Elsa Cristina Buenrostro Díaz; Lucero Meléndez Guadarrama & Marcela San Giacomo Trinidad (eds.), Lingüística histórica de lenguas indomexicanas: hallazgos y discusiones recientes, 15‒37. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas. [Pre-print PDF]
2018. La estructura diversa de las construcciones relativas en el chatino de Zenzontepec. In Memorias del VIII Congreso de Idiomas Indígenas de Latinoamérica, 26–28 de octubre de 2017, Universidad de Texas en Austin.
2017. Commands in Zenzontepec Chatino (Otomanguean). In Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & R. M. W. Dixon (eds.), Commands: a cross-linguistic typology, 106–126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Pre-print PDF]
2017. Otomanguean historical linguistics: exploring the subgroups. Language & Linguistics Compass 11: e12244. [Pre-print PDF]
2017. Otomanguean historical linguistics: past, present and prospects for the future. Language & Linguistics Compass 11: e12240. [Pre-print PDF]
2016. Tone and inflection in Zenzontepec Chatino. In Palancar, Enrique and Léonard, Jean-Léo (eds.), Tone and Inflection: New facts under new perspectives, , 141–162. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
2015. Valency classes in Zenzontepec Chatino. In Malchukov, Andrej & Comrie, Bernard (eds.), Valency Classes in the World’s Languages Vol 2: Case studies from Austronesia, the Pacific, the Americas, and theoretical outlook, 1371–1406. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
2014. Aspects of the phonology and morphology of Zenzontepec Chatino, a Zapotecan language of Oaxaca, Mexico. PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.
2013. The internal diversification and subgrouping of Chatino. International Journal of American Linguistics 79(3): 395–420.
2011. Consonantes sibilantes en el zapoteco de Betaza y la diversificación en Villa Alta. In: Munguía Duarte, Ana Lidia (ed.), Fonología, morfología y tipología semántico-sintáctica, 57–72 (Memorias del X Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste, November 12-15, 2008). Hermosillo, México: Universidad de Sonora.
2011. Zenzontepec Chatino aspect morphology and Zapotecan verb classes. International Journal of American Linguistics 77(2): 219–246.
2010. Computational strategies for reducing annotation effort in language documentation. Linguistic Issues in Language Technology 3(4). CSLI Publications (with Alexis Palmer; Taesun Moon; Jason Baldridge; Katrin Erk; and Telma Can).
2010. El sistema numérico del proto-chatino. In Proceedings of the Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America–IV, Austin, Texas (with Emiliana Cruz).
Courses:
Undergraduate
LING 80 Endangered Languages (S15)
LING 106 Introduction to Phonetics (F14)
LING 107 Introduction to Phonology (W15)
LING 109 Introduction to Syntax (W17, W19, W21, W23)
LING 115 Introduction to Historical Comparative Linguistics (S21, S25)
Graduate
LING 221 A,B,C Field Methods (2015-16; 2017-18; 2019-20, 2021-22, 2023-24)
LING 250 Language Documentation (F14)
LING 252 A,B Seminar: Tone (F16-W17)
Office Hours: Spring 2025