Roderic F. Casali

Roderic F. Casali is a Professor at Canada Institute of Linguistics (CanIL) affiliated with Trinity Western University's Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences in the Department of Applied Linguistics since 2006. His academic career spans over three decades with significant contributions to African linguistics, particularly focused on phonology and phonetics of Niger-Congo languages.

His educational background includes a PhD in Linguistics from UCLA (1996), MA in Linguistics from University of Texas at Arlington (1988), and BS in Physics with honors from University of Massachusetts (1980). His dissertation titled 'Resolving hiatus' was published by Garland Publishing in 1998.

Research Interests: Casali specializes in phonological phenomena with particular expertise in vowel systems, ATR (Advanced Tongue Root) harmony, hiatus resolution, and vowel coalescence. His primary focus has been on African languages, especially Nawuri (Ghana), Akan, and other Niger-Congo languages. He has developed specialized software tools like Dekereke for phonological fieldwork and maintains active research in tongue root harmony systems and vowel inventory typology.

His publications demonstrate consistent contributions to major linguistics journals including Language, Linguistic Typology, and Journal of West African Languages. Key trends show sustained focus on Niger-Congo phonology with increasing emphasis on typological frameworks and computational tools for field linguists.

• President's Fellowship, UCLA (1992-93, 1994-95)

Casali serves as an International Linguistics Consultant for SIL International since 2000, previously working as Africa Area Linguistics Coordinator (1996-2004). He has advised numerous field linguists across Africa and developed training materials for phonological analysis. His teaching portfolio includes advanced courses in Acoustic Phonetics, Advanced Phonological Analysis, and Field Methods. Casali maintains active collaboration with the West African Linguistics Society and continues developing phonological analysis tools for field linguists.