Mariška Bolyanatz Brown (IPA: [məˈɾiʃkə boʊliˈɑnɪts bɹɑʊn]) is a linguist who explores how subtle differences in pronunciation carry social meaning and how those meanings shape communication among speakers of Spanish.
Read her Oxy Story profile and view her Oxy Talks video.
Research
My research examines how social groups use language differently. I also explore how we negotiate identities and stances through the way we speak. I’m especially interested in what small pronunciation differences can tell us about identity, community, and communication. This work helps answer not just who uses a certain way of speaking, but why. By uncovering the social meanings undergirding speech in Latin American Spanish, this research shows how language reflects and shapes social and political relationships.
It might seem trivial, but consider this: when you hear the voice of someone you don’t know, speaking your language, you can often infer things about them after just a few words—perhaps where they’re from, how old they are, or what kind of person they might be. As you get to know them, you might discover that some of these impressions were inaccurate, revealing how our perceptions are shaped by implicit biases. Yet these initial judgments highlight an important truth: speech carries rich social information.
A few of my recent publications exploring these areas:
2025 An initial approximation of the indexical field of creaky voice in Chilean Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/shll-2025-2010/html
2025 Bolyanatz, Mariška, and Mauricio Figueroa. La variación fonológica del español chileno. Enciclopedia concisa de los dialectos del español en el mundo (Eds. Manuel Díaz-Campos and Juan Manuel Hernández-Campoy). Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 229-238.
2024 Non-modal voice quality in Chilean Spanish. Spanish in Context 21(2). https://benjamins.com/catalog/sic.00109.bol
2023b Creaky Voice in Chilean Spanish: A Tool for Organizing Discourse and Invoking Alignment. Languages 8:3, 161. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030161
2022 Rogers, Brandon, and Mariška Bolyanatz. El debilitamiento de /s/ codal en Santiago y Concepción, Chile. Boletín de Filología 57:2, 367-398. Link
2021 Bolyanatz, Mariška and Franny Brogan. Acoustic differences between Chilean and Salvadoran Spanish /s/. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 150 (4): 2446–60. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006443.
Teaching
My teaching focuses on creating an inclusive classroom where students from all backgrounds can explore how language works in everyday life and connect those insights to the world beyond campus. In my courses, students develop skills in recognizing patterns, analyzing data, and understanding the social and linguistic systems that shape the way we communicate.
I strive to be an inclusive instructor who supports students with diverse experiences and learning styles. To promote meaningful engagement, I incorporate community-based elements like guest lectures, field trips, and original data collection projects that align with the College’s commitment to equity and community engagement. In my Fall 2023 First-Year Seminar, co-taught with Professor Alexandra Puerto in History, students used oral history as a tool for social justice storytelling in partnership with the Occidental College Latinx Alumni Association (OCLAA*). Together, we documented the lived experiences of Latinx alumni related to language, identity, and community resilience. The project strengthened ties between alumni and current students while helping students connect course concepts to real people’s stories.
*OCLAA website / Voices of OCLAA article, published in Occidental Magazine
At Oxy, I have taught the following courses:
- Spanish 101 (first-semester introductory Spanish)
- Spanish 102 (second-semester introductory Spanish)
- Spanish 342 (Spanish in the United States)
- Spanish 343 (Spanish Sociolinguistics)
- Linguistics 301 (Introduction to Linguistics)
- Linguistics 351 (Phonetics)
- FYS (Linguistic Resilience in Los Angeles)
- Link to course descriptions