Contact Information

Office: 3151 JFSB

Phone: 422-3252

E-mail: orlando_alba@byu.edu

Orlando was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic in 1948. He studied Philosophy at the Seminario Pontificio Santo Tomás de Aquino, of Santo Domingo (1965-68), and Theology at the University Laval, of Quebec (1968-69). He earned his degree in Education with emphasis in Spanish, from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, of Santiago, Dominican Republic in 1972. He completed a Master's Degree in Linguistics at Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, and a Doctorate degree in Hispanic Philology in Madrid. For 17 years he was a professor of the Philosophy and Letters Department at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. At that institution, he also occupied several administrative positions, such as director of the Philosophy and Letters Department (1981-1984) and Graduate Coordinator in Linguistics (1987-1991). He became a member of the Association of Linguistics and Philology of Latin America (ALFAL) in 1976 and was the Dominican Republic's delegate for that organization from 1987-1991. In 1989 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic. Since that year, he has also become a member of the Dominican Association of Fulbright Fellows. His preferred areas of research include sociolinguistics, dialectology, and lexicology. He has published dozens of articles in specialized magazines. Among his most recent books are: Variación fonética y diversidad social en el español dominicano de Santiago. 1990. Santiago: PUCMM. 252 pp. El español dominicano dentro del contexto americano. 1995. Santo Domingo: Librería La Trinitaria. 168 pp. El México disponible de la República Dominicana. 1995 Santiago: PUCMM. 214 pp. Currently, Dr. Alba is a Professor of Hispanic Linguistics. He has served as Section Head of Linguistics in the Spanish Department, and serves on several Graduate Student Thesis Committees.

Degrees