Kumiko Murasugi

Professor (Linguistics); Undergraduate Advisor (LING and ALDS)

• B.A. (Toronto, Carleton), M.A. (Ottawa), Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
• 247 Paterson Hall, Carleton University
• 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6
• Email Kumiko Murasugi

Research Interests 

• Language documentation
• Inuit languages
• General linguistics: morphology and syntax

Courses

Current course information for this faculty member can be found by searching the Carleton Central/Public Schedule by Term and Name.

Courses Previously Taught

• LING 1001: Introduction to Linguistics I
• LING 2005: Linguistic Analysis
• LING 3004: Syntax I
• LING 3005: Morphology I
• LING 4004: Syntax II
• LING 4801/ALDS 5801: Linguistic Field Methods
• LING 5004: Syntax (MA)
• LING 5800/6802: Language Documentation

Recent Research Grants

• SSHRC Partnership Development Grant. PI. A pilot atlas of the Inuit language in Canada. 2016-2026, $199,800.
• Canadian Foundation for Innovation – John R. Evans Leadership Fund (CFI-JELF), Ontario Research Fund, Office of the Vice-President (Research International), Carleton. 2022-2024. Project Leader, with researchers Erik Anonby and David Mould. Digital tools for documentation and renewal of global endangered Languages, $168,000.
• Multidisciplinary Research Catalyst Fund (MRCF), OVPRI, Carleton University. 2019-2024. Co-PI with Erik Anonby. Digital tools for global endangered languages. $50,000.

Selected Publications

Murasugi, K. 2015-2025. Online atlas. Atlas of the Inuit Language in Canada. Ottawa: GCRC (Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre), Carleton University.

Patrick, D. and K. Murasugi. To appear. Language status, maintenance and revitalization. In A. Berge and A. Arnhold (eds.), Handbook of Inuit-Yupik-Unangan Languages. Oxford University Press.

Allen, S.A., R. Compton, K. Murasugi, D. Neill and D. Patrick. To appear. Canadian Inuktut. In Y. Holt, K.N. Washington and E. Babatsouli (eds.), Linguistic Varieties in North America: A Primer for Speech and Language Practitioners. Communication Disorders Across Language series. Multilingual Matters.

Murasugi, K. and D. Patrick. 2023. The evolution of Inuktut dictionary-making: From historical documentation to Inuit authorship and collaborations. Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. Special Issue: Indigenous Lexicography 44, 7-27.

Filho, B.S., R.P.P. Machado, K. Murasugi and U.D.V. Souza. 2021. Traditional communities and mental maps: Dialogues between local knowledge and cartography from the Socioenvironmental Atlas of Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil. International Journal of Geo-Information, 10(11).

Murasugi, K. 2020. Antipassives. In M. Barrie, J. Coon, C. Gillon, J. Haugen, E. Matthieu and D. Siddiqi (eds.), Routledge Handbook of North American Languages, 275-289. New York: Routledge.

Murasugi, K. 2019. Linguistic cybercartography: Expanding the boundaries of language mapping. In D.R.F. Taylor (editor), E. Anonby and K. Murasugi (associate editors), Further Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography, 389-412.San Diego: Elsevier.

Murasugi, K. and M. Ittusardjuat. 2018. Documenting linguistic knowledge in an Inuit language atlas. Etudes/Inuit/Studies 40: 169-190.

Patrick, D., K. Murasugi and J. Palluq-Cloutier. 2017. Standardization of Inuit languages in Canada. In P. Lane, J. Costa and H. de Korne (eds.), Standardizing Minority Languages: Competing Ideologies of Authority and Authenticity in the Global Periphery. Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism, pp. 135-153.

Murasugi, K. 2017. Linguistic fieldwork and scientific methodology. In C. Haplert, H. Kotek and C. van Urk (eds.), A pesky set: Papers for David Pesetsky. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 80. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.

Murasugi, K. 2014. Noun incorporation, nonconfigurationality, and polysynthesis. In A. Carnie, Y. Sato and D. Siddiqi (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Syntax, 283-304. London and New York: Routledge.

Conference Presentations

Murasugi, K. 2025. All hands on deck: Language documentation across research disciplines. 9^th International Conference on Language Documentation & Conservation (ICLDC9). University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

Murasugi, K. 2024. From anthropology to zoology: Small-scale language documentation projects across research disciplines. Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, Carleton University.

Murasugi, K., B. Jararuse, S. Jararuse, R. Martin and S. Shields. 2022. Inuttitut language survey in Nunatsiavut: Preliminary results. Inuit Studies Conference, University of Winnipeg.

Murasugi, K. and B. Jararuse. 2019. An Inuktut language vitality survey. In Ghyslain Cantin-Savoie, Matthew Schuurman & Richard Compton (eds.), Actes de colloque du 21e Congrès d’études Inuit / Proceedings of the 21st Inuit Studies Conference, 131-135. Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Anonby, E., K. Murasugi, M. Barker, M. Veselka and R. Ingram. 2019. A survey of digital tools for Indigenous languages. FEL XXIII 2019, Sydney, Australia.

Murasugi, K. 2019. Inuktut language atlas: A collaborative digital project with Inuit communities. SSILA Summer Meeting 2019. University of California, Davis.

Murasugi, K. 2018. Atlas of the Inuit Language in Canada: Mapping and visualizing language beyond the land. In S. Drude, N. Ostler & M. Moser (eds.), Endangered languages and the land: Mapping landscapes of multilingualism, Proceedings of FEL XXII/2018 (Reykjavík, Iceland), 64–68. London: FEL & EL Publishing.

Anonby, E., K. Murasugi and M. Dominguez. 2018. Mapping language and the land with the Nunaliit atlas framework: Past, present and future. In S. Drude, N. Ostler & M. Moser (eds.), Endangered languages and the land: Mapping landscapes of multilingualism, Proceedings of FEL XXII/2018 (Reykjavík, Iceland), 56–63. London: FEL & EL Publishing.

Murasugi, K., D.R.F. Taylor and A. Hayes. 2018. A Nunaliit atlas of the Inuit language. ArcticNet ASM2018, Ottawa.Anonby, E, A. Hayes, K. Murasugi and D.R.F. Taylor. 2017. Mapping language with the Nunaliit Atlas Framework: The languages of Iran and the Inuit language in Canada. International Cartographic Conference 2017, Washington DC.

Ittusardjuat, M., J. Palluq-Cloutier and K. Murasugi. 2017. One Inuit language writing system. Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS IX), Umeå University, Sweden.

Murasugi, K., J. Palluq-Cloutier, M. Ittusardjuat and A. Hayes. 2017. Inuit Language Atlas: A place for all dialects. Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS IX), Umeå University, Sweden.

Murasugi, K. 2016. Person features of ergative and antipassive subjects. 20th Inuit Studies Conference, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s.

Murasugi, K. and M. Ittusardjuat. 2016. A pilot atlas of the Inuit language: The stories words can tell. 20th Inuit Studies Conference, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, October 2016.

Palluq-Cloutier, J. and K. Murasugi. 2015. A standardized Inuit writing system. Invited Colloquium: Indigenous Languages and Identities. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL 2015), Toronto.

Sherkina-Lieber, M. and K. Murasugi. 2015. Noun incorporation and case in heritage Inuktitut. In S. Vinerte (ed.), Proceedings of the 2015 Canadian Linguistic Association Annual Conference.

Murasugi, K. 2014. A hierarachical view of the ergative and antipassive in Inuktitut. Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, May 25, 2014.

Murasugi, K. and E. Christie. 2012. Word-final consonant deletion in Inuktitut. 18^th Inuit Studies Conference, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC.

Murasugi, K. 2011. Inuktitut language change. Seventh International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences, University of Akureyri, Iceland.

Murasugi, K. 2011. Morphological complexity in Inuktitut speakers. Language Death, Endangerment, Documentation & Revitalization (26^th UWM Linguistics Symposium), University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Summit and Workshop Presentations

Murasugi, K. 2025. Results of Nunatsiavut language survey. Nunatsiavut Language Summit, Nain, NL.

Murasugi, K. 2019. Inuit language atlas. Cybercartography Workshop, University of São Paulo.

Murasugi, K. 2019. Language and land in fragile ecosystems: Mapping the Inuit language of Canada’s Arctic. 2019 Symposium on the Symbiotic Relationship Between Language and Nature in Arabia, University of Leeds.

Murasugi, K. 2018. Language mapping: Linking language and space. Nunaliit Cybercartography Workshop. CIESAS and CentroGeo, Mexico City.

Murasugi, K. 2018. The Inuit and their language. Nunaliit Workshop, Terra Peninsular, Ensenada, Mexico.

Murasugi, K. 2015. Issues in a unified writing system. Summit on the Unification of the Inuit Writing System, Iqaluit, Nunavut.

Murasugi, K. 2014. History of the Inuit writing system. Pre-summit workshop for 2015 Inuktut Language Writing Summit. Amaujaq National Center for Inuit Education, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Ottawa.

Murasugi, K. 2011. 21^st Century Inuktitut: The spoken language of today’s Inuit. Taiguusliurniq (Inuit Language Authority) Symposium, Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

Memberships

• Canadian Linguistic Association
• Foundation for Endangered Languages
• The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas