Research Expertise and Interest

linguistics, language change, Indo-European languages, historical linguistics, Indigenous California languages, Indigenous language revitalization

Research Description

Andrew Garrett is a professor of linguistics and the Nadine M. Tang and Bruce L. Smith Professor of Cross-Cultural Social Sciences, and serves as the faculty director of the California Language Archive. He is also a member of the Graduate Groups in Folklore and Indigenous Language Revitalization. He works with speakers, learners, and early documentation of Indigenous California languages, especially the Yurok language of northern California; and on early Indo-European languages, especially Greek, Latin, and languages belonging to the Anatolian branch. As a historical linguist, he is interested in language change (in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics), patterns of language diversification, and methods of reconstruction. As an Americanist, he brings philology and language documentation together to better understand the Indigenous linguistic ecology of California and the west coast and to serve the needs of academic researchers and community members who are learning and revitalizing their languages. His books are Basic Yurok (2014) and The Unnaming of Kroeber Hall: Language, Memory, and Indigenous California (2023).