Joseph Greenberg

Joseph Harold Greenberg was born on May 28, 1915, and passed away on May 7, 2001. He was an American linguist. This means he studied how languages work and their structures.

Greenberg is well known for his important work on linguistic typology. This is the way languages are grouped based on their patterns. He also worked on the genetic classification of languages. He helped figure out which languages share common ancestors and how they are related. His research changed the field of linguistics and how we understand connections between different languages around the world.

Life

Joseph Greenberg was born on May 28, 1915, to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. He loved music and played the piano, even giving a concert when he was 14. He started at Columbia College to study music but later changed to languages and cultures. He graduated in 1936 and studied at Northwestern University, where he learned about the Hausa language in Nigeria.

During World War II, Greenberg served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in North Africa and Italy. After the war, he taught at the University of Minnesota and then returned to Columbia University in 1948. In 1962, he moved to Stanford University in California, where he worked for the rest of his life. He became president of the African Studies Association in 1965 and was elected to several important groups, including the National Academy of Sciences.

Contributions to linguistics

Methodology

Joseph Greenberg believed that if two languages seemed similar by chance, it was unlikely that one specific word would sound the same and mean the same thing. He used this idea in his work.

Linguistic typology

Greenberg is known as one of the founders of modern linguistic typology. His work helped develop this field during the 1960s and 1970s. He studied languages from many places and time periods to find common patterns, called linguistic universals. One idea he had was the "implicational universal" — if a language has one feature, it must also have another related feature.

Mass comparison

Main article: Mass comparison

Greenberg thought that comparing just two languages at a time was not the best way to find language families. He believed looking at many languages together could show bigger patterns. He called this method "mass comparison" and later "multilateral comparison." Some other experts did not agree with his method.

Genetic classification of languages

Languages of Africa

Greenberg created a way to group hundreds of African languages into four families: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger–Congo, and Khoisan. He also showed that Bantu languages belong to the Niger–Congo family.

The languages of New Guinea, Tasmania, and the Andaman Islands

Main article: Indo-Pacific languages

In 1971, Greenberg suggested grouping many languages from New Guinea, the Andaman Islands, and Tasmania into one big family called Indo-Pacific. Not all experts agreed with this idea.

The languages of the Americas

Main article: Amerind languages

Greenberg thought most Native American languages could be grouped into one big family called Amerind. This idea was debated, and many experts did not agree. Some recent genetic studies have found patterns that support Greenberg's idea.

The languages of northern Eurasia

Main article: Eurasiatic languages

Later in his life, Greenberg proposed that most languages of northern Eurasia belong to one big family called Eurasiatic. One expert later suggested a connection between Yeniseian and Na-Dené languages, calling it Dené–Yeniseian.

Selected works by Joseph H. Greenberg

Books

• Studies in African Linguistic Classification. New Haven: Compass Publishing Company. 1955.
• Essays in Linguistics_. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1963.
• Language Universals: With Special Reference to Feature Hierarchies. The Hague: Mouton & Co. 1966.
• Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1987.
• Keith Denning; Suzanne Kemmer, eds. (1990). On Language: Selected Writings of Joseph H. Greenberg. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family. Vol. 1: Grammar. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2000.
• Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family. Vol. 2: Lexicon. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2002.
• William Croft, ed. (2005). Genetic Linguistics: Essays on Theory and Method. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Books (editor)

• Universals of Language: Report of a Conference Held at Dobbs Ferry, New York, April 13–15, 1961. Cambridge: MIT Press. 1963.
• Universals of Human Language. Vol. 1: Method and Theory, 2: Phonology, 3: Word Structure, 4: Syntax. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1978.

Articles and reviews

• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1940). "The decipherment of the 'Ben-Ali Diary': A preliminary statement". Journal of Negro History. 25 (3): 372–375. doi:10.2307/2714801. JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2714801). S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:149671256).
• Greenberg (1941). "Some problems in Hausa phonology". Language. 17 (4): 316–323. doi:10.2307/409283. JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/409283).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1947). "Arabic loan-words in Hausa". Word. 3 (1–2): 85–87. doi:10.1080/00437956.1947.11659308.
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1948). "The classification of African languages". American Anthropologist. 50: 24–30. doi:10.1525/aa.1948.50.1.02a00050.
• "Studies in African linguistic classification: I. Introduction, Niger–Congo family". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 5: 79–100. 1949. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.5.2.3628626. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:149333938).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1949). "Studies in African linguistic classification: II. The classification of Fulani". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 5 (3): 190–98. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.5.3.3628501. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:164123099).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1949). "Studies in African linguistic classification: III. The position of Bantu". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 5 (4): 309–17. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.5.4.3628591. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:130651394).
• Greenberg (1950). "Studies in African linguistic classification: IV. Hamito-Semitic". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 6 (1): 47–63. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.6.1.3628690. JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3628690). S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:163617689).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1950). "Studies in African linguistic classification: V. The Eastern Sudanic Family". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 6 (2): 143–60. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.6.2.3628639. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:163502465).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1950). "Studies in African linguistic classification: VI. The Click languages". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 6 (3): 223–37. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.6.3.3628459. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:147343029).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1950). "Studies in African linguistic classification: VII. Smaller families; index of languages". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 6 (4): 388–98. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.6.4.3628564. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:146929514).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1954). "Studies in African linguistic classification: VIII. Further remarks on method; revisions and corrections". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 10 (4): 405–15. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.10.4.3628835. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:162901139).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1957). "The nature and uses of linguistic typologies". International Journal of American Linguistics. 23 (2): 68–77. doi:10.1086/464395. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:144662912).
• Anthony F.C. Wallace, ed. (1960). "The general classification of Central and South American languages". Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 791–4. (Reprinted in Genetic Linguistics, 2005.)
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1962). "Is the vowel-consonant dichotomy universal?". Word. 18 (1–3): 73–81. doi:10.1080/00437956.1962.11659766.
• Universals of Language on 2010-09-20. (In second edition of Universals of Language, 1966: pp. 73–113.)
• Greenberg (1966). "Synchronic and diachronic universals in phonology". Language. 42 (2): 508–17. doi:10.2307/411706. JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/411706).
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1970). "Some generalizations concerning glottalic consonants, especially implosives". International Journal of American Linguistics. 36 (2): 123–145. doi:10.1086/465105. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143225017).
• Thomas A. Sebeok; et al., eds. (1971). "The Indo-Pacific hypothesis". Current Trends in Linguistics, Volume 8: Linguistics in Oceania. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 807–871. (Reprinted in Genetic Linguistics, 2005.)
• "Numeral classifiers and substantival number: Problems in the genesis of a linguistic type". Working Papers in Language Universals. 9: 1–39. 1972.
• Greenberg (1979). "Rethinking linguistics diachronically". Language. 55 (2): 275–90. doi:10.2307/412585. JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/412585).
• Ralph E. Cooley; Mervin R. Barnes; John A. Dunn, eds. (1979). "The classification of American Indian languages". Papers of the Mid-American Linguistic Conference at Oklahoma. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Interdisciplinary Linguistics Program. pp. 7–22.
• Joseph Ki-Zerbo, ed. (1981). "African linguistic classification". General History of Africa, Volume 1: Methodology and African Prehistory. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 292–308.
• Ivan R. Dihoff, ed. (1983). "Some areal characteristics of African languages". Current Approaches to African Linguistics. Vol. 1. Dordrecht: Foris. pp. 3–21.
• With Christy G. Turner II and Stephen L. Zegura (1985). "Convergence of evidence for peopling of the Americas". Collegium Antropologicum. 9: 33–42.
• With Christy G. Turner II and Stephen L. Zegura (December 1986). "The settlement of the Americas: A comparison of the linguistic, dental, and genetic evidence". Current Anthropology. 27 (5): 477–97. doi:10.1086/203472. S2CID (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:144209907).
• Greenberg, J. H. (1989). "Classification of American Indian languages: A reply to Campbell". Language. 65 (1): 107–114. doi:10.2307/414844. JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/414844).
• Greenberg, J. H. (1993). "Observations concerning Ringe's 'Calculating the factor of chance in language comparison'". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 137 (1): 79–90. JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/986946).
• "Review of Michael Fortescue: Language Relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence". Review of Archaeology. 21 (2): 23–24. 2000.