Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, College of Liberal Arts, and Distinguished Professor of Modern Languages
Office: Ventress 204
Email: mldyer@olemiss.edu
Phone: (662) 915-7178
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. in Slavic Linguistics, University of Chicago (1990)
M.A. in Slavic Linguistics, University of Chicago (1982)
B.A. in Russian with Honors, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1980)
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Slavic and Balkan linguistics, Bulgarian and the Romanian of Moldova, languages in contact
RECENT COURSES TAUGHT:
LIN 350, 600, 699, 721
PUBLICATIONS:
Books Written
Reimagining the Balkans and Widening the Bund: Does Moldova Belong? (Kenneth E. Naylor Memorial Lecture Series in South Slavic and Balkan Linguistics), SEESA/Balkanistica Series, 2022a. Oxford, MS: University of Mississippi Printing Services
The Romanian Dialect of Moldova: A Study in Language and Politics. 1999. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press
Word Order in the Simple Bulgarian Sentence: A Study in Grammar, Semantics and Pragmatics. 1992. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Rodopi Editions, B.V.
Books or Volumes Edited or Co-Edited
Language, Performance and Persistence: Proceedings from the Eleventh Macedonian-North American Conference on Macedonian Studies (= Balkanistica 37) (co-editor with Keith Brown and Marjan Markovikj), 2024
Language and the Politics of Identity. The Romance-Speaking Balkans (co-editor with Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković, Mihai Dragnea, Thede Kahl, Blagovest Njagulov and Angelo Costanzo). Brill: Amsterdam, 2021a
The Current State of Balkan Linguistics: Celebrating Twenty Years of the Kenneth E. Naylor Lectures (= Balkanistica 32:1) (co-editor with Brian D. Joseph and Mary Allen Johnson). Oxford, MS: University of Mississippi Printing Services for the Southeast European Studies Association, 2019
ЧEKAJ: Papers for Christina E. Kramer on the Occasion of Her Retirement (= Balkanistica 32:2) (co-editor with Jane Hacking), 2019
Proceedings from the Eighth Macedonian-North American Conference on Macedonian Studies (= Balkanistica 30:2) (co-editor with Victor A. Friedman), 2017a
Од Чикаго и назад: Papers to Honor Victor A. Friedman on the Occasion of His Retirement (= Balkanistica 28) (co-editor with Brian D. Joseph and Christina E. Kramer), 2015
Macedonian Matters: Proceedings from the Seventh Macedonian-North American Conference on Macedonian Studies (= Balkanistica 25:2) (co-editor with Victor A. Friedman), 2012a
The Banff Papers (= Balkanistica 23) (co-editor with Olga Mladenova and Tom Priestly), 2010
The Bill Question: Contributions to the Study of Linguistics and Languages in Honor of Bill J. Darden on the Occasion of His Sixty-Sixth Birthday (co-editor with Howard I. Aronson, Victor A. Friedman, Daniela S. Hristova and Jerrold M. Sadock). Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 2006a
Of All the Slavs My Favorites: Studies in South Slavic and Balkan Linguistics in Honor of Howard I. Aronson on the Occasion of His 66th Birthday (co-editor with Victor A. Friedman). Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 2002a
Papers from the Third Conference on Formal Approaches to South Slavic and Balkan Languages (= Balkanistica 15) (co-editor with Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova, Iliyana Krapova and Catherine Rudin), 2002b
Нека му е вечна славата: Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Zbigniew Gołab [19 March 1923-24 March 1994] (= Balkanistica 10), 1997
Studies in Moldovan: The History, Culture, Language and Contemporary Politics of the People of Moldova. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1996a
Bulgaria, Transitions and Turning Points (= Balkanistica 9) (co-editor with Dennis Hupchick). Pittsburgh: Design Systems Printing, 1996b
Journal Volumes Edited
Balkanistica 36, 2023
Balkanistica 35, 2022
Balkanistica 34, 2021a
Balkanistica 33 (with a Special Section Dedicated to Grace E. Fielder), 2020
Balkanistica 31, 2018
Balkanistica 30:1, 2017b
Balkanistica 29, 2016
Balkanistica 27, 2014
Balkanistica 26, 2013
Balkanistica 25:1, 2012b
Balkanistica 24, 2011
Balkanistica 22, 2009
Balkanistica 21, 2008
Balkanistica 20, 2007
Balkanistica 19 (An Anthology of Bulgarian Literature), 2006b
Balkanistica 18, 2005
Balkanistica 17, 2004
Balkanistica 16, 2003
Balkanistica 14, 2001
Balkanistica 13 (Special Millennial Issue), 2000
Balkanistica 12, 1999
Balkanistica 11, 1998
Articles
“‘Our People Came from Bulgaria’: The Bulgarians of Moldova Revisited,” Minority Languages in the Post-Soviet World: A Case Study of the Republic of Moldova, Valentina B. Iepuri (ed.), Lexington Books, forthcoming in 2025a
“Languages on the Move: The Linguistic Landscape of Moldova in the Second Decade of the 21st Century,” with Valentina B. Iepuri, Language of Politics, Language in Politics: Discursive, Multimodal and Virtual Realities (= Slavia Meriodonalis 25), Nelly Tincheva and Alexandra Bagasheva (eds), forthcoming in 2025b
“Omagiu lui Dori Uriţescu: Ce am învățat despre dialectul românesc din Moldova în ultima jumătate de secol,” Dacoromania, seria nouă XXVIII, nr. 2, pp. 130-38, 2023a
“Prepodavane na bălgarskija ezik v republika Moldova: Opit i perspektivi ‘Teaching the Bulgarian Language in the Republic of Moldova: Experiences and Perspectives’: Recent Bulgarian Studies in Moldova with a Focus on Teaching the Language (with Valentina B. Iepuri) (review article), Balkanistica 36, pp. 169-88, 2023b
“‘Tales from the Script’: Balkanistica at (Nearly) 50!” Balkanistica 36, pp. 7-33, 2023c
“Boyash Studies on the Rise: The Boyash in Hungary: A Comparative Study among the Arĝeleni and Munĉeni Communities (2019) and Boyash Studies: Researching ‘Our People’ (2021)” (review article), Balkanistica 35, pp. 269-82, 2022b
“Romanian and Slavic in Contact” (with Dorin Uriţescu), Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics, Marc L. Greenberg and Lenore Grenoble (eds), Brill, pp. 1-15 (online), 2021b
“Romanian and Slavic in Contact” (with Dorin Uriţescu), Balkanistica 34, pp. 249-70, 2021c (reprint of article in Greenberg and Grenoble 2021)
“In Memoriam: Dorin Uriţescu,” Balkanistica 34 (with Gabriela Uriţescu), pp. 229-48, 2021d
“By Your Command: Machine Translation of Topicalized Objects in Bulgarian,” Sprachwissenschaftliche Perspektiven der Bulgaristik. Standpunkte–Innovationen–Herausforderungen. Festschrift für Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Helmut Wilhelm Schaller anlässlich seines 80. Geburtstags (= Slawistik 8), Henzelmann, Martin (ed.), pp. 39-57, 2020a
“To a Certain Degree: More Recent Observations on Determinedness and Reduplication in Bulgarian,” Balkanistica 33 (with a Special Section Dedicated to Grace E. Fielder), pp. 249-59, 2020b
“‘Indeterminedly Definite’ after All These Years: A Tribute to Naylor 1983,” The Current State of Balkan Linguistics: Celebrating Twenty Years of the Kenneth E. Naylor Lectures (= Balkanistica 32:1), Donald L. Dyer, Brian D. Joseph and Mary Allen Johnson (eds). Oxford, MS: University of Mississippi Printing Services for the Southeast European Studies Association, pp. 355-78, 2019a
“‘I Don’t Care If It Is True, I Don’t Believe It!’: The Linguistic Shibbeloth of Moldovan,” ЧEKAJ: Papers for Christina E. Kramer on the Occasion of Her Retirement (= Balkanistica 32:2), Donald L. Dyer and Jane Hacking (eds). Oxford, MS: University of Mississippi Printing Services for the Southeast European Studies Association, pp. 19-44, 2019b
“Doubling Down: What More Internet Searches Can Tell Us about Reduplicated Pronouns in Bulgarian,” And Thus You Are Everywhere Honored: Studies Dedicated to Brian D. Joseph, James Pennington, Victor A. Friedman and Lenore Grenoble (eds). Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers, pp. 65-83, 2019c
“‘One of a Kind’: Specificity Breeds Duplicity,” ЕЗИКЪТ ОТБЛИЗО: Сборник в чест на Христо Стаменов — Language Close Up: Papers in Honour of Christo Stamenov, Sofia: Universitetsko izdatelstvo “Sv. Kliment Ohridski,” pp. 68-81, 2018
“Making Things Specific and More Specific: Information Packaging, Determinedness and Intonation in the Bulgarian Sentence,” Southern Journal of Linguistics (Special Memorial Volume for Rebecca L. Moreton), 40:2, pp. 59-84, 2016a
“Bulgarian Replicated Pronouns: Another Quarter Century On,” Culturi şi Civilizaţii Est-Europene: In Memoriam Aida Todi (East European Cultures and Civilizations), Marina Cap-Bun (ed.), Constanta, Romania: Universitatea Ovidius Constanta, pp. 261-97, 2016b
“Gary H. Toops: In Memoriam,” Balkanistica 29, pp. 341-49, 2016c
“‘Hey, Teachers Leave Them Kids Alone’: What a Difference a Decade Has Made for the Bulgarians of Moldova and Their language,” Од Чикаго и назад: Papers to Honor Victor A. Friedman on the Occasion of His Retirement (= Balkanistica 28), Donald L. Dyer, Brian D. Joseph and Christina E. Kramer (eds). Oxford, MS: University of Mississippi Printing Services for the Southeast European Studies Association, pp. 107-30, 2015
“‘Neither Hungarian, nor Romanian’: Language Use, Attitudes, Strategies, Linguistic Identity and Ethnicity in the Moldavian Csángó Villages by Lehel Peti and Vilmos Tánczos (eds)” (review article), Balkanistica 27, pp. 163-68, 2014
“Remarks on Moldovan Phonology and Ethnic Speech Identity” (with Felice A. Coles), Balkanistica 26, pp. 31-46, 2013
“How Words Change Meaning: Observations on the Evolution of Modern Russian Lexical Semantics in Post-Soviet Moldova” (with Valentina Iepuri and Tatiana Kadyrbaeva), Съпоставително езикознание XXXV(3), pp. 101-08, 2010
“A Case Study on Lexical Change and Semantic Shift in the Russian of Moldova” (with Valentina Iepuri and Tatiana Kadîrbaeva), Probleme actuale de lingvistică, glotodidactică și știinţă literară, vol. IV, partea I, Chișinău: Universitatea din Moldova, pp. 384-92, 2009
“Romanian Studies in North America, Part 2: Romance Monographs,” Studiile Romanești în lume în 2008 (Romanian Studies around the World in 2008), Marina Cap-Bun (ed.), București: Cartea Universitară, pp. 215-19, 2008
“‘With Our Head and Your Hands’: A Sociolinguistic Study of Contemporary Moldova Since Its Independence from the Soviet Union,” Southern Journal of Linguistics XXXI(1), pp. 20-37, 2007a
“Balkanistica and Romanian Studies,” Studiile Romaneşti în lume în 2007 (Romanian Studies around the World in 2007), Marina Cap-Bun (ed.), București: Cartea Universitară, pp. 177-81, 2007b
“At Last, a Moldovan-Romanian Dictionary and Recurrent Linguistic Troubles in the Republic of Moldova,” The Bill Question: Contributions to the Study of Linguistics and Languages in Honor of Bill J. Darden on the Occasion of His Sixty-Sixth Birthday, Howard I. Aronson, Donald L. Dyer, Victor A. Friedman, Daniela S. Hristova and Jerrold M. Sadock (eds), Bloomington, IN: Slavica, pp. 67-86, 2006a
“Whither Post-Soviet Russian? A Linguistic Case Study of Moldova,” Номинация и дискурс: Материалы докладов международной научной конференции. Минск, Беларусь, 8-9 ноября 2006г, pp. 59-62, 2006b
“The Syntactic Spread of WHERE in Contemporary American English,” In Memory of Richard B. Klein: Essays in Contemporary Philology, Felice A. Coles (ed.), University, MS: Romance Monographs, pp. 148-57, 2005a
“How Grammaticality Eludes: The Relationship between Nonstandard and Evolving Language,” The Vocabula Review 8(3) (March), pp. 1-10, 2005b
“Diasporic Bulgarian in a Multilingual Moldova: Valea Perjei, Taraclia and Their Departure from the Norm,” Die Welt der Slaven L(2), pp. 225-40, 2005c
“Bălgarskijat ezik v Moldova ‘The Bulgarian Language in Moldova’ and Hidden Linguistic Treasures on the Plains of Bessarabia” (review article), Balkanistica 18, pp. 131-36, 2005d
“Emil Vrabie: In Memoriam” (with Henrietta Vrabie), Balkanistica 16, pp. 297-307, 2003
“The Bulgarians of Moldova and Their Language,” Current Trends in Caucasian, East European and Inner Asian Linguistics, Dee Ann Holisky and Kevin Tuite (eds), Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 48-59, 2002a
“Moldova and the Balkans: One Sprachbund or Two?” Of All the Slavs My Favorites: Studies in South Slavic and Balkan Linguistics in Honor of Howard I. Aronson on the Occasion of His 66th Birthday, Victor A. Friedman and Donald L. Dyer (eds), Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, pp. 117-38, 2002b
“Problemy jazyka, istorii i kul’tury bolgarskoj diaspory v Moldove i Ukraine ‘Problems of Language, History and Culture of the Bulgarian Diaspora in Moldova and Ukraine,’ S.Z. Novakov, G.A. Gajdarzhi, P.F. Stojanov and N.N. Chervenkov and Bulgarian Studies in Moldova” (review article), Balkanistica 14, pp. 145-52, 2001a
“Интенсификация репликативных местоимений и воздействие грамматических категорий на местоименный материал в болгарском языке” (The Intensification of Replicated Pronouns and the Influence of Grammatical Categories on Pronominal Material in Bulgarian) (translation into Russian by Igor Smirnov), Некоторые вопросы общего и частного языкознания (Questions of General and Regional Linguistics), Pjatigorsk, Russia: Pjatigorsk State University Press, pp. 3-26, 2001b
“The Mixed Idiom: Its Linguistic Dynamics and Psychological Implications” (with Felice A. Coles and Rebecca L. Moreton), Психологические исследования: слово, текст (Studies in Psycholinguistics: Word and Text). Tver’, Russia: Tver’ State Linguistics University, pp. 100-10, 2001c
“The Life and Works of Gavril Arkadievič Gajdarži,” Balkanistica 14, pp. 205-10, 2001d
“The Romanian Language,” Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe: From the Congress of Vienna to the Fall of Communism, Richard Frucht (ed.), p. 696, 2000a
“The Mixed Idiom in English: Its Linguistic Dynamics and Psychological Implications,” От слова к тексту: Материалы докладов международной конференции. Минск, Беларусь, 13-14 ноября 2000г, pp. 26-27, 2000b
“Some Influences of Russian on the Romanian of Moldova during the Soviet Period,” Slavic and East European Journal 43(1), pp. 85-98, 1999
“What Price Languages in Contact?: The Influence of Russian on the Syntax of the Moldovan Dialect of Romanian,” Nationalities Papers 26:1 (Special Topic Issue, Moldova: The Forgotten Republic), Michael Hamm (ed.), pp. 73-86, 1998
“Marked Word Orders in the Bulgarian Sentence and Their Functional Classifications,” Нека му е вечна славата: Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Zbigniew Gołab [19 March 1923-24 March 1994] (= Balkanistica 10), pp. 108-25, 1997
“The Making of the Moldavian Language,” Studies in Moldovan: The History, Culture, Language and Contemporary Politics of the People of Moldova, Donald L. Dyer (ed.), pp. 89-109, 1996a
“On Reading, Teaching Reading and Affective Semantics” (with Elena Doshlygina), Journal of Accelerated Language Learning 21(3-4), pp. 23-58, 1996b
“The Russian Language,” Palaces of St. Petersburg, Russian Imperial Style (Teachers’ Guide), pp. 28-29, 1996c
“Russian,” Languages of the World for Business, Sam Slick (ed.), pp. 100-10, 1995
“Moldavian Linguistic Realities,” Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR: Papers from the Fourth Conference, Howard I. Aronson (ed.), pp. 234-53, 1994a
“Russian and Romanian Intertwined: The Legacy That Is Moldavian,” NSL 7: Linguistic Studies in the Non-Slavic Languages of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic Republics, Howard I. Aronson (ed.), pp. 65-77, 1994b
“Determinedness and the Pragmatics of Bulgarian Sentence Structure,” Slavic and East European Journal 37:3, pp. 273-92, 1993
“Moldavian, Part II: Korlètjanu’s Gambit,” The Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR: Linguistic Studies, Howard I. Aronson (ed.), pp. 93-105, 1989a
“On Sentential Word Order in Bulgarian: An Historical Perspective,” University of Chicago Working Papers in Linguistics 5, pp. 4-31, 1989b
“Intensifying RP and the Effect of Grammatical Categories on Replicated NM in Bulgarian,” The University of Chicago Working Papers in Linguistics 4, pp. 1-24, 1988
“The Interplay of Subjunctive and Infinitive Complements in Romanian,” Da, Ná, Să, Të, Te: Constructions with Subordinating Complementizers in the Balkans (= Folia Slavica 7:3), pp. 362-80, 1985
Reviews, Forewords and Introductions
- Review of NINE NASTY W*RDS (English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever), John McWhorter, American Speech 97(2), pp. 224-29, 2022
- The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, Steven Pinker, Southern Journal of Linguistics XXXIX(2), pp. 86-96, 2016
- Review of The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language, John McWhorter, American Speech 90(4), 389-93, 2015
- Review of What Language Is (and What It Isn’t and What It Could Be), John McWhorter, Southern Journal of Linguistics 39(1), pp. 41-45, 2015
- Review of What Is Morphology, Mark Aronoff and Kirsten Fudeman, Southern Journal of Linguistics 35(1), pp. 111-14, 2011
- Review of The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, Steven Pinker, American Speech 84(1), pp. 108-11, 2009
- Review (with Valentina B. Iepuri) of The Language of the Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and Identity in an Ex-Soviet Republic, Matthew H. Ciscel, Balkanistica 22, pp. 238-41, 2009
- Review of Language and Identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and Its Disintegration, Robert D. Greenberg, Anthropological Linguistics 49(3-4), pp. 438-39, 2007
- Review of Surviving Linguistics: A Guide for Graduate Students, Monica Macaulay, Southern Journal of Linguistics 31(2), pp. 57-61, 2007
- Foreword to Marius Sala’s From Latin to Romanian: The Historical Development of Romanian in a Comparative Romance Context, Romance Monographs, pp. vii-viii, 2005
- Review of Degrees of Explicitness, John Leafgren, Language 80(2), pp. 350-51, March 2004
- Review (with Valentina B. Iepuri) of Descriptive Romanian Grammar, Laura Daniliuc and Radu Daniliuc, Balkanistica 16, pp. 234-37, 2003
- Review of Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Moldova, Andrei Brezianu, Canadian Slavonic Papers XLIII(2-3), pp. 331-33, 2001
- Foreword to Emil Vrabie’s English-Aromanian Dictionary, Romance Monographs, pp. 5-6, 2000
- English Editor of Two-Way English-Russian Course for Beginners (Универсальный русско-английский курс для начинающих), edited by Elena Doshlygina, Tallinn, 1992
- “Russian-by-Satellite Programs: A Comment and Review of Programs,” Mississippi Foreign Language Association Crusader, Fall 1991
Awards and Honors:
- Distinguished Professor, 2018
- Thomas F. Frist, Sr. Student Service Award, 2017
- Friend of CARTA Award, 2015
- Lifetime Member of CARTA Award, 2015
- Kenneth E. Naylor Memorial Lecturer in South Slavic Linguistics, 2014
- University of Mississippi Nolan B. Shepard International Service Award, 2011
- Mississippi Foreign Language Association Award of Distinction, 2006
- Mississippi Humanities Council Humanities Teacher of the Year, 2004-05
- Phi Kappa Phi, 2003
- Liberal Arts Outstanding Professor of the Year, University of Mississippi, 1992
- Société d’Honneur Française, Pi Delta Phi, 1989
- Phi Beta Kappa, 1979
Web Resources:
