I became interested in the evolution and structure of the Spanish language while an undergraduate at Xavier University, and later I chose to pursue graduate studies in Hispanic Linguistics at Indiana University (Bloomington). My graduate work at Indiana was complemented by study and research in Madrid (1975-76) and Barcelona (1978-79), which helped to focus my research interests on historical phonology and dialectology, and particularly in relation to the Catalan-speaking regions of Spain and southwestern France.

Upon completion of my doctorate I taught Spanish and Catalan language and linguistics at Indiana University and Spanish at the University of New Hampshire before joining the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 1984. I currently teach courses in Spanish linguistics (Phonology, Dialectology, Morphology and Syntax, History of the Spanish Language, The Languages of Spain), Ibero-Romance philology, and Catalan language and culture.

My publications include books on the phonological evolution of Catalan, the history, linguistic and cultural legacy of the Minorcan colony established in Florida during the eighteenth century, and Catalan historical linguistics and philology. In the 1990's I collaborated with Professor Joan Coromines in the publication of the Onomasticon Cataloniae (8 vols., 1989-97), a complete study of the toponymy of the Catalan linguistic territory. My current research includes the edition and linguistic study of the Joaquim Miret i Sans' Collection of medieval Catalan manuscripts from the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, as well as the preparation of a study on the evolution of the Catalan language as seen through its earliest documents.

In 1997 I was named a corresponding member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Philological Section), the official academy of the language. I am also a member of the Associació Internacional de Llengua i Literatura Catalanes, current president of the North American Catalan Society, and a corresponding member of the Insititut Menorquí d'Estudis.