Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins completed her BA in linguistics at the University of British Columbia, and her MA at the University of Toronto before undertaking doctoral studies at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has been teaching at the University of Victoria since 1992.
Czaykowska-Higgins’ doctoral research was on the phonology and morphology of Polish; she has published several articles on Polish, has taught Polish at UVic, supervised a dissertation on the phonology of Kashubian and maintains an interest in Slavic languages.
However, her primary research focus is on the study of Salish languages, with particular attention to the sound structure and word formation of Nxa’amxcín (known to linguists as Moses-Columbian Salish). With the late M. Dale Kinkade, she co-edited the first book solely devoted to the study of Salish languages, Salish Languages and Linguistics (Mouton de Gruyter, 1998). She is working on an on-line database and dictionary of Nxa’amxcín together with TAPOR programmer, Martin Holmes, and is investigating the morphophonology/morphosyntax interface in Salish languages.
Czaykowska-Higgins is currently co-investigator in the SSHRC-funded project, Salish Prosodic Morphology and Contrast in Optimality Theory, together with Tom Hukari, and Suzanne Urbanczyk (PI), and is also
one of the principal investigators of the SSHRC-funded Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) grant Language Revitalization in Vancouver Island Salish Communities: A Multimedia Approach awarded to the University of Victoria in partnership with the Saanich Native Heritage Society, the Hul’q’umi’num’ Treaty Group, and the First People’s Cultural Foundation. Recently, her work has addressed ethical issues in linguistic fieldwork, and best practices in community-based and community-directed research partnerships. She is involved in several community-based SENÇOÏEN language revitalization projects, and has been active as a member of the Advisory Committee, and as Academic Advisor for the Certificate in Aboriginal Language Revitalization program at the University of Victoria.
Language Areas
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Slavic languages, focussing on Polish
Northwest North American languages, focussing on the Salish family
-current work on Nxa'amxcín (Interior Salish) and SENCOTEN (North Straits Salish)
-interested also in Athapaskan languages
Theoretical Interests
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The Phonology-Morphology Interface: Morphological Accent Systems
Morphology: Separationist Hypotheses
The Role of Contrast in Grammar
Phonology: Features and Feature Geometry, focussing on postvelar articulations
Prosodic Structure - Syllables and Consonant Clusters
Recent Student Supervision (Research Projects or Theses):
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•David D. Robertson
Ph.D. Chinook Jargon Pipa
•David Robertson and Joe Kruger
Post-contact Religious Materials in Chinook Jargon and Interior Salish
• Claire K. Turner
Glottal Stop in Salish Languages
•Izabelle Grenon (Sonya Bird, co-supervisor)
Ph.D. Bi-level Linguistic Processing
•Janet Leonard
M.A. Accounting for Stress in SENCOTEN
•Shadiya al-Hashimi (John Esling, co-supervisor)
M.A. The Phonology of Nasal n in the language of the Holy Qur'an
•Marie Louise Willett (Leslie Saxon, co-supervisor)
Ph.D. Word Formation in Nxa'amxcín
•Aliki Marinakis (Leslie Saxon, co-supervisor)
M.A. Seeking Simplicity: The preference for minimal syllable structure in Dogrib
•Ruth Dyck
Ph.D. Prosodic and Morphological Factors in Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh) Stress Assignment.
•Paul Hopkins
Ph.D. The Phonological Structure of the Kashubian Word
• Mihoko Teshigawara
Bibliography on Schwa and Sonority
• Meghan Clayards
Acoustic Correlates of Nxa’amxcín Stress
• Kisa Bell
Nxa’amxcín Clitics and Particles
Recent Research Grants - click to view/hide
Co-Principal Investigator (S. Urbanczyk, Co-PI; T. Hukari, Co-Investigator)
Language Revitalization in Vancouver Island Salish Communities: A Multimedia Approach - SSHRC CURA Project
Partners: First Peoples’ Heritage Language and Culture Council, First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation, Saanich Native Heritage Society, Hul’q’umi’num’ Treaty Group, University of Victoria
Principal Investigator:
Segments, Syllables, and Stress in Salish Languages - SSHRC (complete)
• Post-contact Religious Materials in Chinook Jargon and Interior Salish - UVic IRG
• Q’eltí’s Lower Chehalis Text - UVic IRG (complete)
Co-Investigator:
(S. Urbanczyk: PI; T. Hukari: Co-Investigator)
Salish Prosodic Morphology and Contrast in Optimality Theory - SSHRC
Selected Recent Publications and Presentations
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(2006) (with Martin Holmes and M. Dale Kinkade) “Nxa’amxcín Online Database: Beta Version 1.0.” (secure website)
(2006) “Form and Function in the Nxa’amxcín Inchoative.” WSCLA 11. UBC Working Papers in Linguistics. Vancouver, B.C.
(2006) (with T. Hukari, T. Kulchyski, M. Paige, A. Paul, and S. Urbanczyk) “The Salish Language CURA.” ICSNL 41. University of Victoria. August 9, 2006.
(2006) (with M. Holmes) “The Nxa’amxcín Online Database.” ICSNL 41. University of Victoria. August 9, 2006.
2004) (with M. Dobrovolsky) "Phonology: The Function and Patterning of Sounds." W. O'Grady and John Archibald (Eds.). Contemporary Linguistic Analysis (Fifth Edition).). Pearson Editions, Canada. 49-98.
(2004) “Edges and Domains in Nxa’amxcín Words.” WSCLA 9, Victoria, B.C. February 6, 2004.
(2003) “The Phonology of Nxa’amxcín ‘Compounds’.” Workshop on the Grammatical Structure of Indigenous Languages of the North/West. University of Victoria, February 15, 2003.
(2002) “The Role of the Linguist in Fieldwork and Archiving: Ethical Issues.” CLA. University of Toronto, May 2002.
(2002) “Prefixes, Roots, and Domains in Nxa’amxcín.” CLA. University of Toronto, May 2002.
(2001) (with S. Urbanczyk) "Maintaining Contrast in Nxa’amxcín Root Reduplications." Leora Bar-El and XX (Eds.) WCCFL XX. Cascadilla Press.
(1998) Salish Languages and Linguistics: Theoretical and Descriptive Perspectives. E. Czaykowska-Higgins and M.D. Kinkade (Eds.). Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs 107, W. Winter (Gen. Ed.). Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin/New York.
(1998) "Verbalizing Suffixes and the Structure of the Polish Verb." Yearbook of Morphology 1997, 25-58.
(1998) (with M.D. Kinkade) "Salish Languages and Linguistics." E. Czaykowska-Higgins and M.D. Kinkade (Eds.). Salish Languages and Linguistics: Theoretical and Descriptive Perspectives. Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin/New York, 1-68.
(1998) "The Morphological and Phonological Constituent Structure of Words in Moses-Columbia Salish (Nxa’amxcín)." E. Czaykowska-Higgins and M.D. Kinkade (Eds.). Salish Languages and Linguistics: Theoretical and Descriptive Perspectives. Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin/New York, 153-195.
(1997) (with M. L. Willett) "Simple Syllables in Nxa’amxcín." International Journal of American Linguistics 63(3), 385-411.
(1996) What's in a Word: Word Structure in Moses-Columbia Salish (Nxa’amxcín). Voices of Rupert's Land. Linguistics, University of Manitoba: Winnipeg.
(1996) (with M. L. Willett and A. Bart) "Nxa’amxcín Lexical Suffixes: A Working Paper." Papers for the 31st International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages, 29-38. University of British Columbia: Vancouver, B.C.