Gloria Mellesmoen

Gloria Mellesmoen joins the FAS as Lecturer and Associate Research Scientist in Linguistics. She is a phonologist and historical linguist who teaches courses about language change, variation between and within different language varieties, and Indigenous languages of North America. Her teaching is informed by experience conducting linguistic fieldwork on Salish languages and supporting language revitalization in the Pacific Northwest.

Mellesmoen’s research focuses on defining the role of the phonology as part of the larger architecture of the grammar, with a particular focus on non-concatenative morphology (e.g., reduplication) and derived phonological structure (e.g., syllables). Her work argues for the importance of phonological theory in understanding language change, as well as variation between closely related languages. She organizes a research group (Salish Working Group) with international participation that brings together fieldworkers and researchers of all levels interested in Salish languages and linguistics.  

Prior to Yale, Mellesmoen taught for the School of Languages, Linguistics, and Culture and the Department of Indigenous Education at the University of Victoria; she has taught ʔayʔaǰuθəm and Hul’q’umi’num’ (two Central Salish languages) for programs offered in partnership with the Tla’amin Nation and Stz’uminus First Nation, respectively. She earned her PhD in Linguistics from the University of British Columbia, MA in Linguistics from the University of Toronto, and BA in Linguistics and English from Simon Fraser University.