Welcome!

I am a first-year PhD student in the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Linguistics. I am affiliated with the Language Contact and Cognition Lab, XMorph Lab, and Cultural Evolution of Language Lab. My research interests are centered around language contact with an emphasis on contact-induced change of morphology, so I am lucky to be co-advised by Professors Marlyse Baptista and David Embick. I am specifically interested in morphological multifunctionality and innovation in Creole and Pidgin languages.

I can be best reached at pristina[at]sas[dot]upenn[dot]edu, or you can use this link. I live and work on the Indigenous territory Lenapehoking of the Lenape. As a linguist, the role language policy and planning played in the systematic repression of Indigenous languages, histories, and cultures cannot be overlooked. To learn more about the Lenape language, specifically, please visit these sources: Lenape Language Introduction, The Lenape Talking Dictionary, Place-Names, and References.

Upcoming & Recent Events

• Presentation at SEALS 34: Pristina Koon. Comparing the pronominal paradigms of two Malayophone Creoles – Ambon Malay and Betawi. Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS 34), 10-13 June 2025, Bali, Indonesia (Virtual talk)
• Presentation at the LSA 2025: 11 January 2025. Pristina Koon. Examining Language Attitudes and Ideologies in Language Naming Practices: The Case of Betawi (Language Labelling and Language Attitudes). Paper to be presented at the 2025 Annual Meeting at the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (SPCL 2025), 9-12 January 2025, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
• Presentation at SPCL 2025: 11 January 2025. Pristina Koon. Contact-Induced Change in Betawi Free and Enclitic Pronouns. Poster to be presented at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA 2025), 9-12 January 2025, Philadelphia, PA, United States.

My Name

Although I was named after the capital of Kosova/o, my parents adopted an Americanized pronunciation, so my first name is pronounced [prɪˈstinə] or pris-teen-ah. My surname/family name is represented by the Chinese character 官. You can listen to the variations of its pronunciation here, but the Hakka one is the most applicable to my family.

Broad Research Interests

• Language contact
• Mixed languages & creolistics
• Diasporic language use & diasporic language contact
• Urban language contact & linguistic diversity
• Heritage languages & language learning
• Areal linguistics
• Trade & port languages
• Language change & variation
• Information structure
• Endangered languages & language maintenance
• Language evolution & language ecologies