James Peter Timothy Clackson (born 13 September 1966) is a British

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

and

Indo-Europeanist Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical pro ...

. He is a professor of Comparative Philology at the Faculty of Classics,

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, and a Fellow and Director of Studies at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes ...

Biography

Clackson was born on 13 September 1966 in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

. His father is Andrew Peter Clackson and his mother is Anne Claire Clackson (''née'' Bramley). He attended

Loughborough Grammar School , religion = Christian , head_label = Headmaster , head = Dr Daniel Koch , r_head_label = Chaplain , r_head = Revd E J York , chair_label = Chairman ...

and then

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, where he received his BA in 1988, his MA, and his PhD in 1992. While at the

, Clackson studied under Robert Coleman. His Ph.D. thesis served as a basis for his 1994 book ''The Linguistic Relationship between Armenian and Greek''. His research interests include ancient languages of the Italian peninsula (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

, Sabellian, Etruscan), Indo-European linguistics, Latin linguistics,

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

linguistics and Armenian. He was a junior

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1991 to 1995, a lecturer in classics at the University of Cambridge from 1997 to 2012, and a

reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

in Comparative Philology from 2012 to 2016. He was awarded a

Philip Leverhulme Prize The Philip Leverhulme Prize is awarded by the Leverhulme Trust to recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The prize sche ...

in 2001. He is currently the editor of the

Transactions of the Philological Society ''Transactions of the Philological Society'' is a linguistics journal published three times a year by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Philological Society. It has appeared since 1854, making it the oldest scholarly linguistics journal. It is curre ...

, the oldest scholarly journal devoted to the study of language that has an unbroken tradition. Clackson is the current Secretary of the Friends of the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground, where there is a memorial to his first wife,

Sarah Clackson Sarah Joanne Clackson (née Quinn) (11 December 1965 – 10 August 2003) was a British Coptologist; she was Britain's foremost Coptologist. Born in Leicester, she was educated at Loughborough High School and St John's College, Cambridge where ...

, who died in 2003. He has been married to the sociologist Veronique Mottier since 2005.

Publications

Books *''The Linguistic Relationship between Armenian and Greek'' (Oxford, 1994) *''Indo-European Word Formation'' (co-edited with Birgit Anette Olsen, Copenhagen, 2004) *''The Blackwell History of the Latin Language'' (with Geoff Horrocks, Oxford, 2007)'' *''Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction'' (Cambridge, 2007) *''A Companion to the Latin Language'' (editor, Malden MA, 2011) *''Language and Society in the Greek and Roman Worlds'' (Cambridge, 2015) Others *''Clackson, J. and Meißner, T. eds, (2002) Nominal Composition in Indo-European Languages. Transactions of the Philological Society, Vol. 100, issues 2–3.'' *''Clackson, J. with A. Boud'hors, C. Louis, and P. Sijpesteijn eds, (2009) Monastic Estates in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt, Durham: American Society of Papyrologists.'' *'' Clackson, J., (2013) 'The Origin of the Indic Languages: The Indo-European Model' in Angela Marcantonio and Girish Nath Jha (eds.) Perspectives on the origin of Indian civilization, New Delhi, 259–287. Published by Center for Indic Studies and D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd.

References

Linguists from the United Kingdom Living people Linguists of Indo-European languages Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of classics 1966 births Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People educated at Loughborough Grammar School People from Gloucester {{UK-linguist-stub