Keith Snider, DLitt

Affiliate Professor of Linguistics
I love teaching students how to analyze tone languages. Few things give me more delight than watching students discover for themselves the intricacies of a language’s tone system.

Keith Snider was born in Nigeria and has been a member of SIL International and Wycliffe Bible Translators since 1977. His past service has included: Coordinator, Chumburung Language Project in Ghana; Linguistics Coordinator, Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy, and Bible Translation; Linguistics Coordinator, SIL Cameroon; International Linguistics Consultant, SIL International; Adjunct Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of North DakotaAcademic Dean, CanIL; and M.A in LInguistics Program Director, TWU. He is currently a Certified Senior Linguistics Consultant for SIL International https://www.sil.org/biography/keith-snider and also a Pike Centre Fellow for SIL International  https://pikecenter.org/. Keith regularly leads linguistics workshops in Africa and elsewhere and has been a member of  the TWU/CanIL  faculty since 2000.

See: https://www.canil.ca/wordpress/u_member/keith-snider/

  • DLitt African Linguistics (Leiden University, Netherlands; 1990)
  • MA Linguistics (University of Texas, Arlington;1980)
  • BTh (Canadian Bible College, Regina; 1978)
  • Diploma (Millar Memorial Bible Inst., Pambrun, SK; 1974)

Expertise

Phonology, tone analysis, historical and comparative linguistics, orthography development

Keith’s linguistics research and scholarship includes over 55 publications and papers read at professional meetings. He has been an invited guest speaker at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; El Colegio de México, Mexico City; Australia National University, Canberra, Australia; University of California at Berkeley, CA; Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC; Universitaet Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany; University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ; University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Cameroon; and Universiteit Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands. He has also refereed numerous papers for linguistics publications, as well as grant proposals for SIL International and the National Science Foundation.

Awards & Honors

  • Phi Sigma Iota (U.S. International foreign Language Honor Society)

Recent Publications

  • Floating tone noun class prefixes in Mada (Nigeria). Linguistique et Langues Africaines 7, 11-41. (2021)
  • The Geometry and Features of Tone. Second Edition. Dallas: SIL International. (2020)
  • Long and short vowels in Chumburung: An instrumental comparison. In Pius W. Akumbu & Esther P. Chie (eds.). Engagement with Africa: Linguistic Essays in Honour of Ngessimo M. Mutaka, 249-264. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. (2019)
  • Tone Analysis for Field Linguists. Dallas: SIL International. (2018)
  • Orthography and phonological depth. In Michael Cahill and Keren Rice (eds.). Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages, 27-48. Dallas: SIL International. (2014)
  • On establishing underlying tonal contrast. Language Documentation and Conservation 8, 707-737. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24622. (2014)
  • Orthography. In Carole A. Chapelle (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, Vol. VII Mu-Pr, 4330-4337. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. (2013)

Affiliations & Memberships

Past and present memberships include:

  • West African Linguistic Society
  • Canadian Linguistic Association
  • Linguistics Society of America
  • Association of Contemporary African Linguistics

  • LING 330 Introduction to Phonology
  • LING 555 Historical and Comparative Linguistics
  • LING 586 Advanced Phonology
  • LING 688 Tone Analysis