Jeffrey Heath (born November 29, 1949) is Professor of

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 # ...

Morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and

Linguistic Anthropology Linguistic anthropology is the Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life. It is a branch of anthropology that originated from the endeavor to document endangered languages and has grown over the past cen ...

at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, US. He is known particularly for his work in historical linguistics and for his extensive

fieldwork Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fie ...

. He received his B.A.

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in 1971, the M.A. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1973, and his Ph.D. from the same institution in 1976. From 1973 to 1977 he was a research fellow at the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

. From 1977 to 1982 he was assistant professor of linguistics at Harvard, from 1982 to 1985, associate professor. In 1987 he moved to the University of Michigan as visiting associate professor. He has held the rank of professor since 1989. His research is based on more than ten years of fieldwork: first on

Australian languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

(1970s; primarily in

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

Gunwinyguan The Macro-Gunwinyguan languages, also called Arnhem or Gunwinyguan, are a family of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken across eastern Arnhem Land in northern Australia. Their relationship has been demonstrated through shared morphology i ...

and

Yolŋu The Yolngu or Yolŋu () are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. ''Yolngu'' means "person" in the Yolŋu languages. The terms Murngin, Wulamba, Yalnumata, M ...

languages), then on

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

vernaculars of

Maghrebi Arabic Maghrebi Arabic (, Western Arabic; as opposed to Eastern or Mashriqi Arabic) is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb region, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania. It includes Moroccan, Alger ...

(1980s), and since 1990 on languages of

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

in West Africa:

Tamashek Tamashek or Tamasheq is a variety of Tuareg, a Berber macro-language widely spoken by nomadic tribes across North Africa in Algeria, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Tamasheq is one of the three main varieties of Tuareg, the others being Tamaja ...

(

Tuareg The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern A ...

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

family), five

Songhay languages The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages (, or ) are a group of closely related languages/dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In particular, ...

, and since 2004 several of the

Dogon languages The Dogon languages are a small closely-related language family that is spoken by the Dogon people of Mali and may belong to the proposed Niger–Congo family. There are about 600,000 speakers of its dozen languages. They are tonal languages, an ...

(with Brian Cansler, Vadim Dyachkov, Abbie Hantgan, Laura McPherson, Steven Moran, Kirill Prokhorov, and the late Stephan Elders) including

Jamsay Jamsay Dogon is one of the Dogon languages spoken in Mali, and the only one spoken in Burkina Faso apart from a few villages of Tomo Kan. It is one of the plains languages spoken in Dogon villages outside the Bandiagara Escarpment (the cliffs that ...

Publications

*''Linguistic Diffusion in Arnhem Land''. Canberra: AIAS, pp. 146, 1978. *''Ngandi Grammar, Texts, and Dictionary''. Canberra: AIAS, pp. 297, 1978. *''Basic Materials in Ritharngu: Grammar, Texts, and Dictionary''. Pacific Linguistics B-62. Canberra: Australian National University, pp. 249, 1980. *''Basic Materials in Warndarang: Grammar, Texts, and Dictionary''. Pacific Linguistics, C-60. Canberra: Australian National University, pp. 174, 1980. *''Nunggubuyu Myths and Ethnographic Texts''. Canberra: AIAS, pp. 556, 1980. *''Dhuwal (Arnhem Land) Texts on Kinship and Other Subjects, with Grammatical Sketch and Dictionary''. Oceana Linguistic Monographs, 23. Sydney: University of Sydney, pp. 241, 1980 *''Basic Materials in Mara: Grammar, Texts, and Dictionary''. Pacific Linguistics C-60. Canberra: Australian National University, pp. 522, 1981. *''Nunggubuyu Dictionary''. Canberra: AIAS, pp. 399, 1982 *''Functional Grammar of Nunggubuyu''. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, pp. 664, 1984. *''Ablaut and Ambiguity: Phonology of a Moroccan Arabic Dialect''. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 366, 1987. *''Texts in Koroboro Senni, Songhay of Gao, Mali''. (Wortkunst und Dokumentartexte in afrikanischen Sprachen, 6) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, pp. viii, 283, 1988 (facing English translations; material from Gao and Bamba). *''From Code-Switching to Borrowing: A Case Study of Moroccan Arabic''. (Library of Arabic Linguistics, 9) London and New York: Kegan Paul International, pp. 328, 1989. *''Dictionnaire Songhay-Anglais-Français''. Paris: l'Harmattan. Vol. 1: Koyra Chiini, pp. 264. Vol. 2: Djenne Chiini, pp. 202. vol. 3: Koroboro Senni, pp. 344. 1998. *''Texts in Koyra Chiini, Songhay of Timbuktu, Mali''. (Wortkunst und Dokumentartexte in afrikanischen Sprachen, 5) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, pp. 389, 1998 (facing English translations; material from Gao and Bamba). *''A Grammar of Koyra Chiini, the Songhay of Timbuktu''. (Mouton Grammar Library.) Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. xv, 453, 1998. *''Grammar of Koyraboro (Koroboro) Senni, the Songhay of Gao. Cologne'': Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, pp. 403, 1999. *''Jewish and Muslim Dialects of Moroccan Arabic''. London: Curzon, pp. 559, 2002. *''Hassaniya Arabic (Mali) Poetic and Ethnographic Texts''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 207, 2003. *''Hassaniya Arabic (Mali) - French - English Dictionary''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 338, 2004. *''Tondi Songway Kiini (montane Songhay, Mali): Reference grammar and TSK-English-French Dictionary''. CSLI istributed by University of Chicago Press pp. 440, 2005. *''A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)''. (Mouton Grammar Library.) Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 745, 2005. *''Tamashek Texts from Timbuktu and Kidal''. (Berber Linguistics Series.) Cologne: Koeppe Verlag, pp. 164, 2005. *''Dictionnaire tamachek - anglais - francais''. Paris: Karthala, pp. 848, 2006. *''A Grammar of Jamsay''. (Mouton Grammar Library.) Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 735, 2008.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Jeffrey Linguists from the United States Historical linguists Anthropological linguists Harvard College alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Michigan faculty Living people 1949 births Linguists of Muskogean languages