Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist,

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

and development

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms a ...

. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and works as a consultant.

Career

Blench is known for his wide-ranging interests and has made important contributions to African linguistics, Southeast Asian linguistics, anthropology,

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

ethnobotany Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for m ...

, and various other related fields. He has done significant research on the Niger–Congo,

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. T ...

, and Afroasiatic families, as well as the Arunachal languages. Additionally, Blench has published extensively on the relationship between linguistics and archaeology. Blench is currently engaged in a long-term project to document the languages of central Nigeria. He has also carried out extensive research on the herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria. Blench collaborated with the late Professor Kay Williamson, who died in January 2005, and is now a trustee of the Kay Williamson Educational Foundation, which exists both to publish the unpublished material left by Kay Williamson and to promote the study of Nigerian languages. A series of publications supported by the trust is under way with Rüdiger Köppe Verlag in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

. Blench has also conducted research and evaluations of international development activities worldwide, as a consultant and research fellow of the Overseas Development Institute in London.Academic Curriculum Vitae
Roger Blench, January 2021.

Selected books

* * * * * * 2000. Blench, R. M. & MacDonald, K. C., eds. ''The Origin and Development of African Livestock.'' London: University College Press. * * * Sanchez-Mazas, Alicia; Blench, R. M. et al., eds. 2008. ''Human Migrations in Continental East Asia and Taiwan: matching archaeology, linguistics and genetics.'' London: Routledge.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blench, Roger Linguists from the United Kingdom Living people 1953 births Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Paleolinguists British Africanists Linguists of Southeast Asian languages Linguists of Nilo-Saharan languages Linguists of Nilotic languages Linguists of Niger–Congo languages Linguists of Afroasiatic languages Linguists of Sino-Tibetan languages Linguists of Shompen Linguists of Hrusish languages Linguists of Vazimba 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists