Juliette Blevins (; born 1960) is an American linguist whose work has contributed to the fields of

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

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 known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...

, and typology. 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 postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University ...

Career

Blevins received her PhD in linguistics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1985. She worked as the senior research scientist at the department of linguistics at the

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Society network. Well-known scientists currently based at ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

from 2004 to 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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, University of Luton,

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, and

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

before joining the faculty of CUNY in 2010.

Research

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

Andamanese The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in Indi ...

, Native American languages, and more recently

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

. She is the founder of the approach of Evolutionary phonology. 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 title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

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 ...

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 American women linguists Linguists of Australian Aboriginal languages Linguists of Austronesian languages Historical linguists CUNY Graduate Center faculty MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni Linguists of Algic languages Linguists of Andamanese languages 20th-century American linguists 21st-century American linguists Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America 1960 births