Rebecca Ronquest

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Bio

Dr. Rebecca Ronquest is an Associate Professor of Spanish Linguistics who joined the faculty in 2013.  She earned her Doctorate and two Master’s degrees (Hispanic Linguistics, General Linguistics) at Indiana University, Bloomington, and completed her undergraduate degree in Spanish at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. During her time at Indiana University, she also gained experience conducting speech perception research in the Speech Research Laboratory (Dr. David B. Pisoni, director) and was the recipient of the Latino Studies Program Dissertation-year Fellowship.  At North Carolina State University, she has taught and developed classes in Hispanic Linguistics, directed and served on multiple M.A. exam committees, presented original research as an independent scholar and with colleagues and students, and participated in community outreach events.  Her main research interests include acoustic phonetics, sociophonetics, bilingual (heritage) sound systems, and Spanish language and dialect contact in the United States. In her free time she enjoys running, learning/studying languages, traveling, playing music, and reading.

Projects

Language and dialect contact in North Carolina/the Southeast

The phonetic/phonological systems of heritage speakers of Spanish

Gender Inclusive Language in Spanish

Research Publications

Recent publications:

Vaughn, S., Ronquest, R., and Michnowicz, J.  (In press). Ven, Vení, Venga: A study of voseo in North Carolina. In XX (Eds)., Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics (pp. XX-XX).  John Benjamins.

Michnowicz, J., Ronquest, R., Chetty, S., Green. G., Oliver, S.  (2023).  Spanish in the Southeast: What a swarm of variables can tell us about a newly forming bilingual community.  Languages, 2023(8),168. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030168

 Michnowicz, J., Trawick, S., & Ronquest, R.  (2023).  Spanish language shift and maintenance in North Carolina: Insights from a large class survey.  Hispanic Studies Review, 7(2).  Online access:  Spanish Language Maintenance and Shift in a Newly-Forming Community in the Southeastern United States: Insights From a Large-Class Survey | Published in Hispanic Studies Review (cofc.edu)

Michnowicz, J, Ronquest, R., Ambrister, B., Bain, H., Chisholm, N., Greene, R., Bull, L., & Elkins, A.  (2023).   Perceptions of inclusive language in the Spanish of the Southeast: Data from a large classroom project.  Spanish in Context, ONLINE FIRST. https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.00084.mic

Willis, E., & Ronquest, R.  (2022).  A sociolinguistic exploration of coda liquids in Cibao Dominican Spanish.  In M. Díaz-Campos (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Variationist Approaches to Spanish (pp. 207-230).  New York/London: Routledge.

Ronquest, R., Michnowicz, J., Wilbanks, E., & Cortés, C.  (2020).  Examining the (mini-) variable swarm in the Spanish of the Southeast.  In A. Morales-Front, M. Ferreira, R. Leow & C. Sanz (Eds.), Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics (pp. 303-325).  Amsterdam:  John Benjamins.

Presentations

Recent conference presentations:

Wagner, D., Darhower, M, & Ronquest, R. (2023, October).  ¿Les niñes? Teachers’ attitudes towards addressing inclusive language in the Spanish classroom.  Paper presented at the 2023 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Provo, UT.

Ronquest, R., Dodge, G., Jackson, J., Oppold, E., Pender, A.R., &  Potter, A. (2023, October). No es muy cómico pero sí es ofensivo: Reactions to Mock Spanish images by U.S. bilinguals. Paper presented at the 2023 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Provo, UT.

 Ronquest, R.  (2023, February).  ¿Es para todes? Patterns of inclusive language acceptance and usage in Spain and Argentina.  Paper presented at Spanish Linguistics in the Southeast/North Carolina (SLISE/SLINKI), Davidson, NC.

Vaughn, S., Ronquest, R., Michnowicz, J.   (2022, November).  Ven, Vení, Venga: A study of voseo in North Carolina.  Paper presented at the 2022 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, virtual, Tempe, AZ.

Ronquest, R., & Willett, C. (2022, February).  Perceptions of Mock Spanish by Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States. Poster presented at Spanish Linguistics in the Southeast/North Carolina (SLISE/SLINKI), Greenville, SC.

Michnowicz, J., & Ronquest, R. (2021, March).  Spanish language shift and maintenance in North Carolina: Insights from a large class survey.  Paper presented at Spanish Linguistics in North Carolina (SLINKI), virtual, Raleigh, NC.

Michnowicz, J., Ronquest, R., Bull, L., Elkins, A., Ambrister, B., Bain, H., Chisholm, N., & Greene, R.   (2020, November).  Inclusive language in NC Spanish: what a big classroom project taught us about opinions, perceptions and use.  Paper presented at the Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics Virtual Symposium, Raleigh, NC.

Miller, J., & Ronquest, R.  (2020, February).  Motivation in the acquisition of L2 Spanish phonetic traits.  Paper presented at Current Approaches to Spanish and Portuguese Second Language Phonology (CASPSLaP), San Jose, CA.

Area(s) of Expertise

Research: Acoustic phonetics, sociophonetics, heritage Spanish phonetics and phonology, dialect and language contact, Spanish in the Southeast, Gender inclusive language in Spanish

Teaching: Introduction to Spanish Phonetics (undergraduate and graduate), Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics (graduate), Spanish in the United States, Spanish Translation and Interpretation, Introduction to Forensic Linguistics