Ilia Peiros (full name: Ilia Iosifovich Peiros, Илья Иосифович Пейрос; born 1948) is a Russian linguist who specializes in the

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...

. Peiros is a well-known scholar in the

Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics The Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics (also called the Nostratic School) is a school of linguistics based in Moscow, Russia that is known for its work in . Formerly based at Moscow State University, it is currently centered at the (Institut ...

, known for its work on long-range comparative linguistics. Peiros is affiliated with the

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, includ ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, United States and was also a former faculty member at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

Education

In 1971, Peiros graduated from the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics at

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. In 1976, he defended his Ph.D. thesis on Sino-Tibetan consonantism.

Career

In the article "An Austric Macrofamily: some considerations", Peiros proposed that

Austro-Tai The Austro-Tai languages, sometimes also Austro-Thai languages, are a proposed language family that comprises the Austronesian languages and the Kra–Dai languages. Related proposals include Austric ( Wilhelm Schmidt in 1906) and Sino-Austrone ...

(comprising Austronesian and Tai-Kadai), Miao-Yao ( Hmong-Mien), and

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...

were all related to each other as part of the

Austric The Austric languages are a proposed language family that includes the Austronesian languages spoken in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Madagascar, as well as the Austroasiatic languages spoken in Mainland Southeast ...

language

macrofamily In historical linguistics, a macrofamily, also called a superfamily or phylum, is a proposed genetic relationship grouping together language families (also isolates) in a larger scale classification.Campbell, Lyle and Mixco, Mauricio J. (2007), '' ...

. In 1996, together with

Sergei Starostin Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin (russian: Серге́й Анато́льевич Ста́ростин; March 24, 1953 – September 30, 2005) was a Russian historical linguist and philologist, perhaps best known for his reconstructions of hypotheti ...

, he published a 6-volume comparative dictionary of the

Sino-Tibetan languages Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...

.Peiros, Ilia; Starostin, Sergei. ''A Comparative Vocabulary of Sino-Tibetan Languages''. Parkville: University of Melbourne, 1996. Peiros also does research on Amerindian historical linguistics as part of the

Evolution of Human Languages The Evolution of Human Languages (EHL) project is a historical-comparative linguistics research project hosted by the Santa Fe Institute. It aims to provide a detailed genealogical classification of the world's languages. The project was founded ...

(EHL) project, led by

Georgiy Starostin Georgiy Sergeevich "George" Starostin (russian: Гео́ргий Серге́евич Ста́ростин; born 4 July 1976) is a Russian linguist. He is the son of the late historical linguist Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin (1953–2005), and his ...

Selected publications

* *Peiros, Ilia. 1998.
Comparative Linguistics in Southeast Asia
'. Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. *Comrie, Bernard and Ilia Peiros. 2000.
Austroasiatic and Tai-Kadai Languages in the Intercontinental Dictionary Series
" In ''The Fifth International Symposium on Languages and Linguistics'', Ho Chi Minh City, 89-117. Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities. *Peiros, Ilia. 1997.
Lolo-Burmese Linguistic Archaeology
" In ''The Mon-Khmer Studies Journal'', 27: 233–248. *Jukes, Anthony and Ilia Peiros. 1996.
A Katuic Cultural Reconstruction
" In ''The Fourth International Symposium on Language and Linguistics, Thailand'', 827–849. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University. *Peiros, Ilia. 1996.
The Vietnamese Etymological Dictionary and 'new' Language Families
" In ''The Fourth International Symposium on Language and Linguistics, Thailand'', 883–894. Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University.

References

External links

Academia.edu page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peiros, Ilia Living people 1948 births Linguists from Russia Paleolinguists Santa Fe Institute people Long-range comparative linguists Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics