University of North Texas 
Patricia Cukor-Avila
Faculty
Professor
Graduate Advisor
Discovery Park G178D
Education
- PhD, University of Michigan, 1995
- MA, Texas A&M University, 1984
- BA, Texas A&M University, 1977
Research Interests
Linguistic variation and change, specifically grammatical change over time in African American English; language across the lifespan; linguistic stereotyping and accent discrimination
Dr. Cukor-Avila’s research focuses on language variation and change, specifically in African American English (AAE). Her joint longitudinal panel study of AAE in a rural Texas community (the longest running ethno-linguistic study in the field) conducted with Dr. Guy Bailey has provided much of the data for publications concerning (1) approaches to sociolinguistic fieldwork, (2) the transmission and diffusion of linguistic features, and (3) recent linguistic innovations in AAE. Professor Cukor-Avila is co-editor (with Guy Bailey and Natalie Maynor) of The Emergence of Black English: Text and Commentary (1991), coauthor with Guy Bailey and Juan Salinas of Inheritance and Innovation in the Evolution of Rural African American English (2022) and The Interaction of Demographic Processes and Language Variation and Change (forthcoming), and coeditor (with Sali A. Tagliamonte and Guy Bailey) of Empirical Accountability in Variation Linguistics: Taking the Next Steps (forthcoming).
Dr. Cukor-Avila has an MA in Spanish from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan. Before coming to UNT in 1994, she taught Spanish, adult ESL, and she was also an ESL/Bilingual teacher in Conroe ISD. At UNT she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in linguistics (sociolinguistics, language and society, language variation, African American English, pedagogical grammar). Dr. Cukor-Avila is also co-author and co-designer with Dr. Shobhana Chelliah of two award-winning online introductory linguistics classes. She is the current President of the American Dialect Society and co-editor of the “Language and Public Policy” section of the journal Language.