American linguist known for his work in linguistic typology and for proposing large-scale genetic classifications of the world's languages through his mass comparison method. His four-way classification of African languages into Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afro-Asiatic and Khoisan is widely used, but his later Amerind and Eurasiatic proposals, built on the same method, are rejected by most historical linguists.
Facts
RoleLinguist; developer of mass comparison and proposer of large-scale language classifications 1 Connections
Associated With
Why this is disputed. Greenberg proposed Khoisan as one of Africa's four basic language families (1949-1963); the genetic unity has not been confirmed and is rejected by specialists today.
Source Wikipedia: Khoisan Languages
Niger-Congo is one of the four African language families Greenberg proposed in The Languages of Africa (1963).
Source Wikipedia: Joseph Greenberg
Greenberg established Nilo-Saharan as one of his four proposed African language families in The Languages of Africa (1963); it remains the least secure of the four.
Source Wikipedia: Nilo-Saharan Languages
Influenced
Comrie's Language Universals and Linguistic Typology explicitly adopts and builds on Greenberg's program of language universals and typological correlations.
Open Questions
Source Wikipedia: Joseph Greenberg
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Joseph Greenberg
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction
an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.
Nationality, Joseph Greenberg entity page
American linguist known for his work in linguistic typology and for proposing large-scale genetic classifications of the world's languages through his mass comparison method.
- Associated With: Niger-Congo, Africa section
View the Source Wikipedia: Nilo-Saharan Languages
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Nilo-Saharan, History sectionView the Source Wikipedia: Khoisan Languages
Open Questions (1 open question)
Is Joseph Greenberg's Amerind grouping of the indigenous languages of the Americas a valid genetic family?
Greenberg's 1987 book Language in the Americas proposed that nearly all indigenous languages of the Americas outside Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene form one Amerind family, using his mass comparison method. Most historical linguists reject mass comparison as a method for establishing genetic relationships, and reviewers found extensive inaccuracies in the supporting data, so the proposal has generated lively debate but is rejected by most specialists.
What would resolve this Rigorous application of the standard comparative method, with reconstructed sound correspondences and paradigmatic morphology, to each of the many individual language families Amerind proposes to unite, verified independently of Greenberg's own cognate sets.
Historical and comparative linguisticsWikipedia: Joseph Greenberg
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.