David Wayne McAlpin (20 February 1945 – 23 December 2023) was an American linguist who specialized in Elamitic and Dravidian languages. Born in

West Frankfort, Illinois West Frankfort is a city in Franklin County, Illinois. The population was 7,275 at the 2020 census. The city is well known for its rich history of coal. The city is part of the Metro Lakeland area. History Although one might associate the name ...

, he received his bachelor’s degree in linguistics at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, studying under A. K. Ramanujan. Following this, he received his Ph.D. in linguistics at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

and an M.B.A. from the

Wharton School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. He is best known for his work attempting to demonstrate a genetic relationship between

Elamite language Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Scythic, Median, Amardian, Anshanian and Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was recorded in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite i ...

and the

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages are a language family, family of languages spoken by 250 million people, primarily in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia. The most commonly spoken Dravidian l ...

Contribution to Linguistics

McAlpin is best known for a series of articles attempting to demonstrate a relationship between the ancient

of Iran and the

of southern India, known as the Zagrosian Hypothesis. Whereas his ''Proto-Elamo-Dravidian: The Evidence and Its Implications'' focuses on cognation between Elamite and all of Dravidian, his most recent three papers capitalize on the fact that Brahui, initially part of the

North Dravidian languages The North Dravidian languages are a branchZvelebil 1990:56 of the Dravidian languages that includes Brahui, Kurukh and Malto. It is further divided into Kurukh–Malto and Brahui. Phonological features Northern Dravidian is characterized by t ...

, is well known to be related to other Dravidian languages and aim to prove that Brahui is instead a descendant of an unattested eastern dialect of Elamite. He was a member of the DravLing group, in which he presented a talk entitled “Morphology in Proto-Zagrosian” in 2022.

Articles

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Books

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References

External links

David McAlpin
on Academia.edu. {{DEFAULTSORT:McAlpin, David 1945 births 2023 deaths Dravidologists People from West Frankfort, Illinois