Leila Barbara (April 9, 1938 – June 2, 2024) was a Brazilian linguist known for her work in applied linguistics and systemic functional linguistics, of which she was considered a pioneer in Brazil.
Barbara was born in 1938. She attended the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), graduating with a degree in Anglo-Germanic literature in 1960 and a doctorate in English in 1971.
Beginning in 1965, she was a longtime professor at PUC-SP, where she helped found the school's applied linguistics program. She worked in various areas of linguistics, particularly systemic functional linguistics, with an emphasis on Brazilian Portuguese, though she also studied English and Spanish. She served as dean of the university from 1988 to 1992.
Barbara died in 2024, in São Paulo.