Ratliff earned a B.A. in English from Carleton College in 1968, an M.A.T. in English Education from University of Chicago in 1970, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from University of Chicago in 1986, with a dissertation entitled The Morphological Functions of Tone in White Hmong.[3][4]
Ratliff, Martha (2004). "Vocabulary of Environment and Subsistence in the Hmong–Mien Protolanguage". In Tapp; Michaud; Culas; Lee (eds.). Symposium on the Hmong/Miao in Asia. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books. pp. 147–165. Manuscript.
Newman, Paul and Martha Ratliff. 2001. Linguistic Fieldwork. Cambridge University Press.
玛莎·拉特利夫 [Martha Ratliff] (2019). Miao Yao yuyan lishi yanjiu [苗瑶语言历史研究]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press. ISBN9787520351775 (Chinese translation of Ratliff's 2010 book, Hmong-Mien language history)