Martha Ratliff

I write about Hmong-Mien linguistics, language contact in Southeast Asia, historical linguistics, and tone. My current research projects include studies of the history of verbal negation and coordination in Hmong-Mien. I am also developing a new tool to help determine language family membership. This tool depends on the fact that lexical stability is different (and thus diagnostic) in each group of related languages. Recent publications include Hmong-Mien Language History (Pacific Linguistics 2010) and Meaningful Tone (Northern Illinois University Press, reissued 2010).