R. David Zorc (also R. David Paul Zorc; born 1943) is an American linguist primarily known for his work on Austronesian languages and linguistics, particularly the

Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languages ...

Education

Zorc graduated ''cum laude'' with an A.B. in Philosophy from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 1965. From 1965 to 1969, he was a

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John ...

member in the Philippines. In 1971, he obtained an M.A. in Linguistics & Anthropology from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

, and graduated with a Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1975.R. David Zorc
''zorc.net''. Accessed 2022-03-17. His doctoral dissertation was a comprehensive survey of the

Bisayan languages The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the Central Philippine languages. ...

Career

From 1976 to 1986, Zorc was a Senior Lecturer at the School of Australian Linguistics (SAL). Zorc has contributed to major works on Austronesian historical linguistics such as the ''Comparative Austronesian Dictionary'' (1995), to which he contributed an index of

Proto-Austronesian Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify ...

reconstructions. He has also published various dictionaries such as the ''Tagalog slang dictionary'' (1991). Other than Austronesian languages, Zorc has also published works on

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

Nguni languages The Nguni languages are a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa by the Nguni peoples. Nguni languages include Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele (sometimes referred to as "Northern Ndebele"), and Swazi. The appellation "Nguni ...

, and

Cushitic languages The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As ...

Personal life

Zorc currently lives in

Wheaton, Maryland Wheaton is a census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, situated north of Washington, D.C. and northwest of downtown Silver Spring. Wheaton takes its name from Frank Wheaton (1833–1903), a career officer in the ...

Selected publications

The following are some of Zorc's works. *Austin, P., McConvell, P., Day, R., Black, P., Zorc, R., Schebeck, B., McKay, G., Hale, K., Laughren, M., Nash, D., Wierzbicka, A., Laughren, M. and Koch, H. editors. ''Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 15: Australian Aboriginal lexicography''. A-66, xii + 185 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1983. *Zorc, R. David. "A Yolngu-Matha Dictionary - Plans and Proposals". In Austin, P., McConvell, P., Day, R., Black, P., Zorc, R., Schebeck, B., McKay, G., Hale, K., Laughren, M., Nash, D., Wierzbicka, A., Laughren, M. and Koch, H. editors, ''Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 15: Australian Aboriginal lexicography''. A-66:31-40. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1983. *Zorc, R. David. ''The Bisayan dialects of the Philippines: Subgrouping and reconstruction''. C-44, xxiv + 351 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1977. *Zorc, R. David. "On the Development of Contrastive Word Accent: Pangasinan, a Case in Point". In Nguyễn Đ.L. editor, ''Southeast Asian linguistic studies, Vol. 3''. C-45:241-258. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1979. *Zorc, R. David. "Proto-Philippine Word Accent: Innovation or Proto-Hesperonesian Retention?". In Wurm, S.A. and Carrington, L. editors, ''Second International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics: Proceedings''. C-61:67-119. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1978. *Zorc, R. David. "Where, O where, have the laryngeals gone? Austronesian laryngeals re-examined". In Halim, A., Carrington, L. and Wurm, S.A. editors, ''Papers from the Third International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, Vol. 2: Tracking the travellers''. C-75:111-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1982. *Zorc, R. David. "Some historical linguistic contributions to sociolinguistics". In Geraghty, P., Carrington, L. and Wurm, S.A. editors, ''FOCAL I: Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics''. C-93:341-355. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1986. *Zorc, R. David. "The genetic relationships of Philippine languages". In Geraghty, P., Carrington, L. and Wurm, S.A. editors, ''FOCAL II: Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics''. C-94:147-173. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1986. *Zorc, R. David. "Austronesian apicals (*dDzZ) and the Philippine non-evidence". In Laycock, D.C. and Winter, W. editors, ''A World of language: Papers presented to Professor S.A. Wurm on his 65th birthday''. C-100:751-761. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1987. *Zorc, R. David. "Austronesian culture history through reconstructed vocabulary (an overview)". In Pawley, A.K. and Ross, M.D. editors, ''Austronesian Terminologies: Continuity and change.'' C-127:541-594. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1994.

References

External links

Publications by R. David ZorcZorc papers
at the

SEAlang library The SEAlang Library, established in 2005 as an online library source for Southeast Asian linguistic reference materials, was initially funded from the Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) program of the U. ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zorc, R. David Living people 1943 births Cornell University alumni Linguists of Austronesian languages Linguists of Philippine languages Linguists from the United States Historical linguists