Juliette Blevins is an American linguist whose work has contributed to the fields of

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

, and

typology Typology is the study of types or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Typology is the act of finding, counting and classification facts with the help of eyes, other senses and logic. Ty ...

. She is currently Professor of Linguistics at the

Graduate Center, CUNY The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the ...

Career

Blevins received her PhD in Linguistics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1985. She worked as the Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Linguistics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

from 2004-2010. She has also worked as a professor at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

University of Luton The University of Bedfordshire is a public research university with campuses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. The University has roots from 1882, however, it gained university status in 1993 as the University of Luton. The Univers ...

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilitie ...

, and

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

before joining the faculty of CUNY in 2010.

Research

Blevins's research spans several sub-disciplines and features Austronesian, Australian Aboriginal, Native American, and

Andamanese languages The Andamanese languages are a pair of language families spoken by the Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. The two language families are Great Andamanese and Ongan, while the Sentinelese language is spoken by an uncon ...

. She is the founder of the approach of

Evolutionary phonology Evolutionary Phonology is an approach to phonology and historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics inc ...

. This approach seeks to explain the cross-linguistic similarity of sound patterns by examining the regular processes of sound change. This approach argues that many common sound patterns in contemporary phonologies are not necessarily reflections of underlying universal properties of languages, but rather the result of sound changes that are guided by the common tendencies of language transmission. In 2001, Blevins published a sketch grammar of Nhanda, based on her work with the last remaining speakers.

Honors

In 2020, Blevins 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'', ...

. She is the director of the Endangered Language Initiative, co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, and a co-founder of the

Yurok Language Yurok (also Chillula, Mita, Pekwan, Rikwa, Sugon, Weitspek, Weitspekan) is an Algic language. It is the traditional language of the Yurok people of Del Norte County and Humboldt County on the far north coast of California, most of whom now sp ...

Project.

Select publications

* 2001.
Nhanda: An Aboriginal language of Western Australia
'. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications in Linguistics, Number 30. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press. * 2004.
Evolutionary phonology: The emergence of sound patterns
'. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * 2007.
Endangered sound patterns: Three perspectives on theory and description
" ''Language Documentation and Conservation'' 1: 1-16. * 2007.
The importance of typology in explaining recurrent sound patterns
" ''Linguistic Typology'' 11:107-113. * 2009.
Another universal bites the dust: Northwest Mekeo lacks coronal phonemes
" ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 48: 264-73. * 2009.
Low vowel dissimilation outside Oceanic: The case of Alamblak
" ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 48:2: 477-83. * 2010.
Saving endangered languages in the United States. A Living Legacy: Preserving Intangible Culture
" Washington, D.C.: United States Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs. 6-10. * 2012.
Duality of patterning: Absolute universal or statistical tendency?
''Language and Cognition'' 4: 275-96. Special issue. Bart de Boer, Simon Kirby, and Wendy Sandler (eds.).

References

External links

Faculty web page

Endangered Language Alliance

Endangered Language Initiative

Yurok Language Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blevins, Juliette Living people Linguists from the United States Women linguists Linguists of Australian Aboriginal languages Linguists of Austronesian languages Paleolinguists Graduate Center, CUNY faculty MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni Linguists of Algic languages Linguists of Andamanese languages Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America