I'm a linguist and PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin. My current research investigates the expression of temporal-modal semantics in the Zapotec languages of Oaxaca, Mexico, with a particular focus on Tlacochahuaya Zapotec. My broader interests extend to digital humanities and the preservation of language data. I'm committed to ethical, community-engaged research that extends beyond the academy.

• a description of imperfectives in Tlacochahuaya Zapotec, in both synchronic and diachronic perspectives (SSILA handout; TLS handout)
• a workflow to transform crowdsourced transcriptions of Mixtec syntax surveys into machine- and human-readable corpora (transcription project; archive deposit)
• an online "Talking Dictionary" for San Jernónimo Tlacochahuaya Zapotec
• a modern Tlacochahuaya Zapotec translation of a Colonial Valley Zapotec will (archive deposit)

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

I would like to acknowledge that I live on the ancestral territory of the Comanche, Tonkawa, and Sana peoples. I further acknowledge the Abenaki people, on whose lands I grew up. Many nations have stewarded this land across generations; we should take time to honor their cultures, their histories, and their present experiences. I recommend reading An Indigneous People's History of the United States.

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Formal Bio

May Helena Plumb is a PhD student in linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. May's 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 research has been published in the International Journal of American Linguistics.