Terrence Kaufman
Encyclopedia
Terrence Kaufman is an American
linguist
specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, Mesoamerica
n historical linguistics
and language contact
phenomena. He is currently a professor at the department of anthropology
at the University of Pittsburgh
.
, Siouan
, Hokan
, Uto-Aztecan
, Mixe–Zoquean and Oto-Manguean
families.
Probably because of his focus on gathering empirical documentation of unwritten languages through fieldwork and training of native linguists, Kaufman's list of publications is less extensive than those of other scholars in the field. Nevertheless, many of his articles, often coauthored with other scholars such as Lyle Campbell
, Sarah Thomason
and John Justeson, have been highly influential.
In a 1976 paper coauthored with Lyle Campbell, he advanced a theory that the Olmec
s spoke a Mixe–Zoquean language, based on the substantial presence of early Mixe–Zoquean loans in many Mesoamerican languages, particularly from specific, culturally significant semantic domains. This theory has come to be widely accepted, and is often cited as quasi-fact. Along with Lyle Campbell and Thomas Smith-Stark, Kaufman carried out research published in Language
(1986) which led to the recognition of Mesoamerica
as a linguistic area
.
In Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics (1988), coauthored by Kaufman and Sarah Thomason, the authors were the first to lay down a solid theoretical framework for the understanding of the processes of contact-induced language change. Kaufman's proposed genealogy of the indigenous languages of South America (Kaufman 1990), which stands as the most thorough and well-founded classification of its kind, serves as the basis for the classification presented by Lyle Campbell in his authoritative "American Indian Languages" (Campbell 1996).
Along with John Justeson, he claimed to have successfully deciphered the Isthmian
or Epi-Olmec
script (Justeson & Kaufman 1993). This claim has not found general acceptance in the general scholarly community, and has been bluntly rejected by Michael Coe and Stephen Houston (Houston & Coe 2004, and Press Release). Kaufman is currently involved in the "Project for the Documentation of the Languages of Mesoamerica" or PDLMA, focused on collecting standardized linguistic data from the underdocumented languages of Mesoamerica.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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 documentation of unwritten languages, Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n historical linguistics
Historical linguistics
Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
and language contact
Language contact
Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics.Multilingualism has likely been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world are multilingual...
phenomena. He is currently a professor at the department of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
.
Academic career
Kaufman received his PhD in Linguistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1963. Kaufman has produced descriptive and comparative-historical studies of languages of the MayanMayan languages
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
, Siouan
Siouan languages
The Western Siouan languages, also called Siouan proper or simply Siouan, are a Native American language family of North America, and the second largest indigenous language family in North America, after Algonquian...
, Hokan
Hokan languages
The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken in California, Arizona and Mexico. In nearly a century since Edward Sapir first proposed the "Hokan" hypothesis, little additional evidence has been found that these families were related to each other...
, Uto-Aztecan
Uto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
, Mixe–Zoquean and Oto-Manguean
Oto-Manguean languages
Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the family, which is now extinct, was spoken as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica.The...
families.
Probably because of his focus on gathering empirical documentation of unwritten languages through fieldwork and training of native linguists, Kaufman's list of publications is less extensive than those of other scholars in the field. Nevertheless, many of his articles, often coauthored with other scholars such as Lyle Campbell
Lyle Campbell
Lyle Richard Campbell is a linguist and leading expert on indigenous American languages—especially those of Mesoamerica—and on historical linguistics in general. He also has expertise in Uralic languages. He is presently Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.-Life and...
, Sarah Thomason
Sarah Thomason
Sarah Grey Thomason is a linguist known particularly for her work on language contact, historical linguistics, pidgins and creoles, Slavic Linguistics, typological universals, and xenoglossy. She has also worked since 1981 documenting Montana Salish. She is one of the Language Log...
and John Justeson, have been highly influential.
In a 1976 paper coauthored with Lyle Campbell, he advanced a theory that the Olmec
Olmec
The Olmec were the first major Pre-Columbian civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco....
s spoke a Mixe–Zoquean language, based on the substantial presence of early Mixe–Zoquean loans in many Mesoamerican languages, particularly from specific, culturally significant semantic domains. This theory has come to be widely accepted, and is often cited as quasi-fact. Along with Lyle Campbell and Thomas Smith-Stark, Kaufman carried out research published in Language
Linguistic Society of America
The Linguistic Society of America is a professional society for linguists. It was founded in 1924 to advance linguistics, the scientific study of human language. The LSA has over 5,000 individual members and welcomes linguists of all kinds. It works to advance the discipline and to communicate...
(1986) which led to the recognition of Mesoamerica
Mesoamerican Linguistic Area
The Mesoamerican Linguistic Area is a sprachbund containing many of the languages natively spoken in the cultural area of Mesoamerica. This sprachbund is defined by an array of syntactic, lexical and phonological traits as well as a number of ethnolinguistic traits found in the languages of...
as a linguistic area
Sprachbund
A Sprachbund – also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads – is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact. They may be genetically unrelated, or only distantly related...
.
In Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics (1988), coauthored by Kaufman and Sarah Thomason, the authors were the first to lay down a solid theoretical framework for the understanding of the processes of contact-induced language change. Kaufman's proposed genealogy of the indigenous languages of South America (Kaufman 1990), which stands as the most thorough and well-founded classification of its kind, serves as the basis for the classification presented by Lyle Campbell in his authoritative "American Indian Languages" (Campbell 1996).
Along with John Justeson, he claimed to have successfully deciphered the Isthmian
Isthmian script
The Isthmian script is a very early Mesoamerican writing system in use in the area of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from perhaps 500 BCE to 500 CE, although there is disagreement on these dates...
or Epi-Olmec
Epi-Olmec
Epi-Olmec may refer to:*Epi-Olmec culture, pre-Columbian archaeological culture/area in the coastal Veracruz region of Mexico, ca. 300BCE–250CE*Isthmian script, also known as Epi-Olmec script, a Mesoamerican writing system-Contrast with:...
script (Justeson & Kaufman 1993). This claim has not found general acceptance in the general scholarly community, and has been bluntly rejected by Michael Coe and Stephen Houston (Houston & Coe 2004, and Press Release). Kaufman is currently involved in the "Project for the Documentation of the Languages of Mesoamerica" or PDLMA, focused on collecting standardized linguistic data from the underdocumented languages of Mesoamerica.
Articles
- Campbell, Lyle, and Terrence Kaufman. 1976. "A Linguistic Look at the Olmec." American Antiquity 41(1):80-89.
- Campbell, Lyle, and Terrence Kaufman. 1981. "On Mesoamerican linguistics." American Anthropologist 82:850-857.
- Campbell, Lyle, Terrence Kaufman and Thomas C. Smith-Stark. "Meso-America as a Linguistic Area", Language Vol. 62, No. 3 (Sep., 1986), pp. 530–570.
- Campbell, Lyle, Terrence Kaufman, "Mayan Linguistics: Where are we Now?" Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 14, 1985 (1985), pp. 187–198.
- Justeson, John, and Terrence Kaufman. 1993. "A decipherment of epi-Olmec hieroglyphic writing". Science 259:1703-1711.
- Kaufman, Terrence. 1976. "Archaeological and Linguistic Correlations in Mayaland and Associated Areas of Meso-America" World Archaeology, Vol. 8, No. 1, Archaeology and Linguistics (Jun., 1976), pp. 101–118
- Kaufman, Terrence. 1988. "A Research Program for Reconstructing Proto-Hokan: First Gropings." In Scott DeLancey, ed. Papers from the 1988 Hokan–Penutian Languages Workshop, pp. 50–168. Eugene, Oregon: Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon. (University of Oregon Papers in Linguistics. Publications of the Center for Amerindian Linguistics and Ethnography 1.)
- Kaufman, Terrence. 1990. "Language History in South America: What we know and how to know more." In David L. Payne, ed. Amazonian Linguistics, pp. 13–74. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Books
- Justeson, John, William Norman, Lyle Campbell, and Terrence Kaufman. The Foreign Impact on Lowland Mayan Language and Script. Middle American Research Institute Publication 53.
- Kaufman, Terrence (1972). El Proto-Tzeltal-Tzotzil. Fonología comparada y diccionario reconstruido. México, UNAM.
- Thomason, Sarah G., and Terrence Kaufman (1988). Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07893-4.