Loraine Katherine Obler (born July 12, 1948)[1] is an American linguist and neuroscientist, internationally recognized as a leading scholar in the field of neurolinguistics and multilingualism.
Her work spans diverse sub-disciplines such as the neurolinguistics of bilingualism,[4] language processing in aging and Alzheimer's disease,[5] and the cross-language study of aphasia.
[6] Obler is a Distinguished Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center where she holds appointments in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Linguistics, and Cognitive Neuroscience.
[9] In 2023, the edited volume Advances in the Neurolinguistic Study of Multilingual and Monolingual Adults: In Honor of Professor Loraine K. Obler was published in recognition of her career contributions.
Her dissertation was conducted under the supervision of Ernest T. Abdel-Massih and titled "Reflexes of the Classical Arabic šayʔun 'Thing' in the Modern Dialects: A Study in Patterns of Language Change.
She also studied Spanish, German, and Chinese, achieving varying levels of proficiency, and dedicated four years to learning Arabic, focusing more on reading and writing than speaking.