Claire Louise Bowern () is a

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. Linguis ...

who works with Australian Indigenous languages. She is currently a professor of linguistics at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, and has a secondary appointment in the department of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

at Yale.

Career

Bowern received her PhD from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 2004, under the advisement of

Jay Jasanoff Jay Harold Jasanoff ( or ) is an American linguist and Indo-Europeanist, best known for his ''h2e''-conjugation theory of the Proto-Indo-European verbal system. He teaches Indo-European linguistics and historical linguistics at Harvard Universi ...

and

Calvert Watkins Calvert Watkins ( /ˈwɒtkɪnz/; March 13, 1933 – March 20, 2013) was an American linguist and philologist, known for his book '' How to Kill a Dragon''. He was a professor of linguistics and the classics at Harvard University and after retirem ...

. Her dissertation was about Bardi, a Nyulnyulan language, and its verbal

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 ...

, both diachronically and synchronically. In 2007, the NSF/NEH awarded her a grant to study Bardi texts from the 1920s. The thesis also included a sketch grammar of Bardi, as well as the first attempted reconstruction of Proto-Nyulnyulan. She is the author of two widely used linguistics textbooks, ''Linguistic Fieldwork: A Practical Guide'' and ''An Introduction to Historical Linguistics''.

Chirila

At Yale, Bowern founded the Contemporary and Historical Reconstruction in the Indigenous Languages of Australia database (Chirila), through the Yale Pama-Nyungan Lab. The name for the database was inspired by both the motivations of the project and the word for "echidna" in many Western Desert languages, ''tyirilya''. Bowern's interest in the historical linguistics of

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 ...

has directed the lab to collect lexical data for a more thorough accounting of the composition of the Pama-Nyungan language family.

Service

Since 2015 she has been the vice president of the

Endangered Language Fund The Endangered Language Fund (ELF) is a small non-profit organization based in New Haven, Connecticut. ELF supports endangered language maintenance and documentation projects that aim to preserve the world’s languages while contributing rare li ...

. Bowern is on the editorial review board for the following publications: * '' Language Dynamics and Change'' (editorial board) * '' Diachronica'' (executive editor) * ''

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 curr ...

'' (editorial board) * '' Routledge Studies in Historical Linguistics'' (series editor) * EL Publishing (advisory board) * '' Conceptual Foundations of Language Science'' (editorial board) Bowern was previously an associate editor of ''

Language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

'', specifically responsible for the historical linguistics and language documentation areas from 2012 to 2016.

Awards and honors

The Kenneth L. Hale Award was awarded to her in 2014, for her documentation work on Bardi. In 2020, Bowern was inducted as a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

Key publications

* (2014) Bowern, Claire and Bethwyn Evans (eds). ''Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics''. Basingstoke: Routledge. * (2012) Bowern, Claire. ''A Grammar of Bardi''. Mouton de Gruyter. * (2011) Bowern, Claire. ''Sivisa Titan: Sketch Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary Based on Material Collected by P. Josef Meier and Po Minis.'' University of Hawaii Press. * (2010) Bowern, Claire and Terry Crowley. ''An Introduction to Historical Linguistics.'' Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. Fourth edition. * (2008) Bowern, Claire. ''Linguistic Fieldwork: A practical guide.'' Palgrave
(Online Materials)
(2nd Edition 2015) * (2004) Bowern, Claire and Harold Koch (eds). ''Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method''. Benjamins

References

External links

Yale faculty profile

''The Conversation'' profile

Academia.edu profile

LSA Member spotlight

CHIRILA: A database of the languages of Australia
(Contemporary and Historical Reconstruction in the Indigenous Languages of Australia)
CHIRILA, Yale Pama-Nyungan Lab
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowern, Claire Living people Linguists from Australia Women linguists Historical linguists Harvard University alumni Yale University faculty Linguists of Australian Aboriginal languages Linguists of Tasmanian languages Computational linguistics researchers 21st-century linguists Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America