Rafael Nuñez-Cedeño

Rafael A. Núñez Cedeño, born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1946, is anotable U.S. researcher and writer on Hispanic linguistics, with a special focus on its phonology and morphology. He is also known for his academic and general articles on the Spanish of the Dominican Republic.
==BIOGRAPHY==
Núñez Cedeño’s education started in Santo Domingo where shortly after completing his third year of high school, he enrolled as an Air Force cadet at the Batalla de Las Carreras Military Academy, in which he earned one of two scholarships to study advanced aviation in Lackland, Texas. Those hopes were dashed by the armed insurrection of April 1965, and later he joined the constitutionalist forces led by Commander Francisco Alberto Caamaño Deñó. At the end of 1965, he emigrated to the United States, New York, and completed his
high school education at the Benjamin Franklyn High School of Spanish Harlem. In New York City, Núñez Cedeño began his career as a linguist and educator. He graduated in education and Hispanic literature from New York University (1972). At that university, he obtained a master’s degree in Hispanic linguistics and literature (1973). In 1977 he received a doctorate in the same area at the University of Minnesota. 
Núñez Cedeño was co-founder and co-editor of Probus: International Journal of Romance Linguistics, published in Berlin, Germany, and participates as associate editor of Signos Lingüísticos, from Mexico, Miríada Hispánica, from Spain, Modern Language Journal, from the United States, Cuadernos de Poética and was a member of the editorial board of País Cultural, of Santo Domingo. He is an Emeritus Professor of Hispanic Linguistics in the Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and has taught either as a Visiting Assistant Professor or Full Professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Indiana University, University of New Hampshire, Boston University, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Universidad de los Andes and Universidad de Maracaibo of Venezuela, Universidad Metropolitana Autónoma de Mexico, Colegio de Mexico, Colegio de Michoacán, Mexico and Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, of Santiago and Santo Domingo. He has been invited to conferences as a stellar speaker and by selection in numerous academic institutions in the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, and Spain. 
For nine years, Núñez Cedeño directed the Department of Latin American Studies at the UIC, the city where he has lived for more than three decades, married Yulissa, and raised three daughters, Yakaira, Ysatris, and Seihla. In 1979 he received the Siboney Award for the essay category with Fonología Moderna y el Español de Santo Domingo in 1992 the Essay Award from the Universidad Pedro Henríquez Ureña with Morfología de la Sufijación Española and in 1994 the National Science Award from the Dominican Republic Academy of Sciences.
 
His linguistic research has been disseminated in anthologies, encyclopedias, books, newspapers, radio and TV, supplements, and national and international literary magazines. He is a Corresponding Member of the Dominican Academy of Language and an Active Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic. Due to Núñez Cedeño’s prolific university career and essay production, he was distinguished in 2010 with Day Dedication and Street Designation at the XIII International Book Fair of Santo Domingo, as well as being recognized among the 100 Dominicans distinguished abroad by the National Council for Communities Abroad (CONDEX) and is listed on the Dominican American National Roundtable's List of Prominent Dominicans in the United States. In 2015, he was selected from among 1,200 members of the University of Minnesota Alumni of Notable Achievement, from a list consisting of 132,000 graduates, who have stood out for their professional distinction and leadership in American society. He is a dedicated worker with the Dominican community in Chicago, where he founded and chaired the Dominican American Midwest Association, an association of Dominicans dedicated to cultivating the country's culture and providing humanitarian services to Dominicans in Chicago and on the island and other Latino communities. He is currently a core member of the Chicago Cultural Alliance.
==BOOK PUBLICATIONS==
Núñez Cedeño’s published books include La Fonología Moderna y el Español de Santo
Domingo (Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1979); Morfología de la Sufijación Española
(Santo Domino: UNPHU 1993); Estudios sobre la Fonología del Español del Caribe
(Caracas: Fundación Casa de Bello,1986); Studies in Romance Languages ​​(Dordrecht, The
Netherlands: Foris Publications, 1987); Fonología Generativa Contemporánea de la Lengua
Española (1st edition 6 1999, 2nd edition 2014, Washington, D.C. Georgetown University
Press); Language Knowledge and Use(Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publications, 2003);
The Syllable and Stress (Berlin: De Gruyter-Mouton, 2014), and Desarrollos y Procesos
Lingüísticos en el Español Dominicano (Santo Domingo: Colección Bibliográfica del
Banco Central de la República Dominicana, 2021).
==CO-AUTHORED==
(Caracas: Fundación Casa de Bello,1986; co-authored)
​​(Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Foris Publications, 1987; co-authored)
(1st edition 1999, 2nd edition 2014, Washington, D.C. Georgetown University Press; co-authored)
(Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publications, 2003; co-authored)
Category:1946 births
Category:People from Santo Domingo
Category:Researchers
Category:Writers