Donald Leroy Dyer a absolvit secţia de limbi slavice a universităţii din Chicago în 1982, de unde şi-a obţinut şi doctoratul în 1990, specializându-se în lingvistică balcanică, mai precis în rusă, română şi bulgară. Dintre monografiile sale, menţionăm: The Romanian Dialect of Moldova: A Study in Language and Politics (Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1999) şi Studies in Moldovan: The History, Culture, Language and Contemporary Politics of the People of Moldova (Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1996). Interesul constant pentru studiile româneşti este confirmat şi de un număr impresionant de articole şi recenzii: „Remarks on Moldovan Phonology and Ethnic Speech Identity” (with Felice A. Coles), Papers from the Ninth International Non-Slavic Languages Conference, Howard I. Aronson (ed.), Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers; „Moldova and the Balkans: One Sprachbund or Two?” Of All the Slavs My Favorites: Studies in South Slavic and Balkan Linguistics in Honor of Howard I. Aronson on the Occasion of His 66th Birthday, Victor A. Friedman and Donald L. Dyer (eds), Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers, 2002; „Some Influences of Russian on the Romanian of Moldova during the Soviet Period,” Slavic and East European Journal 43:1, 1999; „What Price Languages in Contact?: The Influence of Russian on the Syntax of the Moldovan Dialect of Romanian,” Nationalities Papers 26:1, 1998; „The Making of the Moldavian Language,” Studies in Moldovan: The History, Culture, Language and Contemporary Politics of the People of Moldova, Donald L. Dyer (ed.), 1996; „Moldavian Linguistic Realities,” Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR: Papers from the Fourth Conference, Howard I. Aronson (ed.), 1994; „Russian and Romanian Intertwined: The Legacy That Is Moldavian,” Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR: Linguistic Studies II, Howard I. Aronson (ed.), 1994; „The Interplay of Subjunctive an