May Helena Plumb (she/her)

I'm a linguist and current graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. My research focuses on San Jernónimo Tlacochahuaya Zapotec, a variety of Valley Zapotec (Otomanguean) spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. I'm particularly interested in how study of colonial Valley Zapotec documents can inform our understanding of the modern languages (and vice versa).

My recent projects include expanding an online dictionary for San Jernónimo Tlacochahuaya Zapotec, researching resumptive pronouns in Colonial Valley Zapotec relative clauses, and eliciting a modern Tlacochahuaya Zapotec translation of a Colonial Valley Zapotec will. I'm also a collaborator on the Ticha Project, a digital text explorer for Colonial Zapotec.

In addition to linguistics, I enjoy dancing, baking, and needlecrafts (particularly embroidery and knitting). I also tweet a lot about linguistics and read fantasy novels.

My Research »

Formal Bio

May Helena Plumb is a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the documentation and description of Zapotec languages and the linguistic analysis of Colonial Zapotec documents. She is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a Donald D. Harrington Graduate Fellow, and her work has been published in the International Journal of American Linguistics.