Jane Hassler Hill is an American anthropologist and linguist who has worked extensively with Native American languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family

Uto-Aztecan languages

Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...

. She received her Ph.D. from UCLA in 1966. She has worked with descriptive linguistics

Descriptive linguistics

In the study of language, description, or descriptive linguistics, is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is spoken by a group of people in a speech community...

 writing a grammar of the Cupeño language

Cupeño language

Cupeño is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language, formerly spoken by the Cupeño people of Southern California, USA, who now speak English. Roscinda Nolasquez was the last native speaker of Cupeño.-Morphology:...

, and has contributed to the fields of linguistic anthropology

Linguistic anthropology

Linguistic anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life. It is a branch of anthropology that originated from the endeavor to document endangered languages, and has grown over the past 100 years to encompass almost any aspect of language structure and...

 and socio-linguistics with her works about Nahuatl

Nahuatl

Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...

 and about the linguistic expressions of racism towards Spanish-speakers in the American Southwest

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

 in her works about mock Spanish

Mock Spanish

Mock Spanish is a term sometimes used to describe a variety of usages common in some otherwise monolingual Anglo-American circles. The term has been popularized by anthropologist-linguist Jane H. Hill of the University of Arizona, most recognizably in relation to the catchphrase, "Hasta la vista,...

. She has also worked with the Tohono O'odham language together with Ofelia Zepeda

Ofelia Zepeda

Ofelia Zepeda is a Tohono O'odham poet and intellectual. Zepeda is a professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and is well known for her efforts in the preservation of her native language and promotion literacy in it. She is also known for her work as a consultant and advocate on...

. From 1998 to 1999 she was president of the American Anthropological Association

American Anthropological Association

The American Anthropological Association is a professional organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 11,000 members, the Arlington, Virginia based association includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, biological anthropologists, linguistic...

. She has published more than 100 articles and chapters, as well as seven books.http://lsa2009.berkeley.edu/faculty/hill.html. She is currently Regents' Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

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