Education

B.A., 1969, Cornell University
M.A., 1972, Texas A & M
Ph.D., 1987, Texas A & M

Academic Summary

After ten years at Auburn University, Cynthia Bernstein joined the University of Memphis to teach linguistics in the M.A. and Ph.D. programs. Her research and teaching areas include the study of dialect variation, methods of gathering and interpreting linguistic data, and the use of linguistic tools to analyze literary and popular genres. Although born and raised in New York, she is particularly interested in language varieties of the Southern United States.

Select Publications

• Bernstein, Cynthia. "Jewish English in the American South." New Perspectives on Language Variety in the South: Historical and Contemporary Approaches. 2014.
• Bernstein, Cynthia. "Grammatical Features of Southern Speech: yall, might could, fixin to." English in the Southern United States. 2010 [2003]. 106-118.
• Bernstein, Cynthia. "Changing Grammar of Southern States English" and "Language of Jews in the American South." The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Vol. 5, Language. 2007.
• Bernstein, Cynthia Goldin. "Representing Jewish Identity through English." English and Ethnicity. Signs of Race Series Publication. 2006.
• Bernstein, Cynthia. "More than Just Yada Yada Yada (Jewish English)." American Voices. 2006. 251-257.
• Bernstein, Cynthia, Thomas Nunnally, and Robin Sabino, eds. Language Variety in the South Revisited. 1997.​
• Bernstein, Cynthia. "Labov and Waletzky in Context." Journal of Narrative and Life History 7 (1997): 45–52.
• Bernstein, Cynthia, Thomas Nunnally, and Robin Sabino, eds. Language Variety in the South Revisited. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997.

Bernstein, Cynthia. "Misunderstanding the American South." American Speech (2000): 339-42.
Bernstein, Cynthia, and Robert Bernstein. "Phonological Innovation in East Texas: Different Samples, Similar Explanations." American Speech 73 (1998): 44–56.
Bernstein, Cynthia, ed. The Text and Beyond: Essays in Literary Linguistics. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1994.