Michael David Fortescue is a British-born linguist

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Kalaallisut, Inuktun

Inuktun

Inuktun is the language of approximately 1000 indigenous Inughuit, inhabiting the world's northernmost settlements in Qaanaaq and the surrounding villages in northwestern Greenland. All speakers of Inuktun also speak Standard West Greenlandic and many also speak Danish and a few also English...

, Chukchi

Chukchi language

The Chukchi language is a Palaeosiberian language spoken by Chukchi people in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug...

 and Nitinaht

Nitinaht language

Ditidaht is a South Wakashan language spoken on the southern part of Vancouver Island. Nitinaht is related to the other South Wakashan languages, Makah and the neighboring Nuu-chah-nulth....

. He is professor of General Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen

The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

 and chairman of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen. His Comparative Eskimo Dictionary, co-authored with Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan, is the standard work in its area, as is his Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary. In his book Whiteheadian Linguistics, Fortescue explores the possibilities of a linguistic theory based on the philosophical theories of Alfred North Whitehead

Alfred North Whitehead

Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education...

.

Selected works by Michael Fortescue

• 1984. Some Problems Concerning the Correlation and Reconstruction of Eskimo and Aleut Mood Markers. Institut for Eskimologi, Københavns Universitet.
• 1990. From the Writings of the Greenlanders: Kalaallit Atuakklaannit. University of Alaska Press.
• 1991. Inuktun: An Introduction to the Language of Qaanaaq, Thule. Institut for eskimologis skriftrække, Københavns Universitet.
• 1992. Editor. Layered Structure and Reference in a Functional Perspective. John Benjamins Publishing Co.
• 1994. With Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan. Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates. Alaska Native Language Center.
• 1998. Language Relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence. London and New York: Cassell.
• 2001. Pattern and Process: A Whiteheadian Perspective on Linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing Co.
• 2002. The Domain of Language. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
• 2005. Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
• 2007. Comparative Wakashan Dictionary. Munich: LINCOM Europa.

See also

• Proto-Eskimo-Aleut language
  Proto-Eskimo-Aleut language
  Proto-Eskimo–Aleut was the common ancestor of the Eskimo languages and Aleut. Its existence is known through similarities in Eskimo and Aleut. The existence of Proto-Eskimo–Aleut is generally accepted among linguists. It was for a long time true that no linguistic reconstruction of...
  
  
• Uralo-Siberian languages
  Uralo-Siberian languages
  Uralo-Siberian is a hypothetical language family consisting of Uralic, Yukaghir, Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Eskimo–Aleut. It was proposed in 1998 by Michael Fortescue, an expert in Eskimo–Aleut and Chukotko-Kamchatkan, in his book Language Relations across Bering Strait...