Jonathan Kaye (linguist)
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Derek Kaye is an influential linguist who specialises in phonology. He is recognized as one of the founders of Government Phonology
Government phonology
Government phonology is a theoretical framework of linguistics and more specifically of phonology. The framework aims to provide a non-arbitrary account for phonological phenomena by replacing the rule component of phonology with a restricted set of universal principles and parameters...

.

Kaye studied linguistics at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 under Uriel Weinreich
Uriel Weinreich
Uriel Weinreich was a linguist at Columbia University. Born in Vilnius , he earned his Ph.D. from Columbia, and went on to teach there, specializing in Yiddish studies, sociolinguistics, and dialectology...

 and Robert Austelitz, earning his Ph.D. in 1970. He wrote his thesis on Desano, a South American language he studied through a year of field work in the Amazon
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...

.

In 1967 he took up his first teaching position at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

. While there he focused his studies on the Ottawa language
Ottawa language
Ottawa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language, spoken by the Ottawa people in southern Ontario in Canada, and northern Michigan in the United States. Descendants of migrant Ottawa speakers live in Kansas and Oklahoma...

, an Algonquian language spoken in Wikwemikong, Mantoulin Island, Ontario. In 1974 he spent his sabbatical leave as a visiting professor at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

, and in 1975 he accepted a position at the Université du Québec à Montréal
Université du Québec à Montréal
The Université du Québec à Montréal is one of four universities in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-Basic facts:The UQAM is the largest constituent element of the Université du Québec , a public university system with other branches in Gatineau , Rimouski, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec City, Chicoutimi, and...

. At UQAM he continued his studies on Ottawa and began to focus on the Algonquin language
Algonquin language
Algonquin is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside French and to some extent English, by the Algonquin First Nations of Quebec and Ontario...

 in Lac Simon, Québec as well. As a result of his studies he co-edited the book Linguistic Studies of Native Canada with Eung-Do Cook. Linguistic Studies was published in 1978 by the University of British Columbia Press
University of British Columbia Press
The University of British Columbia Press is a university press that is part of the University of British Columbia. It was established in 1971.-External links:*...

.

By the early 1980s Kaye's focus moved to West African languages. He was the primary editor of volume 2 of Current Approaches to African Linguistics, printed by Walter de Gruyter
Walter de Gruyter
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG is a scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. Its origins date back to 1749 when it was given the right to print books by King Frederick II of Prussia. -De Gruyter Mouton:...

 publishing house in 1983.

Kaye moved to the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...

 at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 in 1988. It was there he published Phonology : a Cognitive View in 1989, considered to be his seminal work.

In 1999 he moved again, this time to the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies is one of the prestigious universities in China which specializes in international studies and one of the key institutions of higher learning in Guangdong Province in South China. The University was established in June 1995 through the merger of Guangzhou...

. He stayed there until he moved to Girona, Spain in 2001.
He left Girona and moved to Gorizia, Italy in August 2008. He is still active in research and PhD supervision. He has recently given courses at the University of Ljubljana and at the University of Nova Gorizia.

2003 saw the publication of Living on the Edge: 28 Papers in Honour of Jonathan Kaye, a book dedicated to his life and work.

Travels

Kaye traveled extensively, studying native languages in the area (Ex. languages of North
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, the Ivory Coast, Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...

, Semitic
Semitic
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...

, France, and others) and would frequently protest the idea that languages were radically different from one another:

From our point of view as English speakers, a language such as Chinese
might seem totally different from our own. In fact, these two languages as
well as all other human languages are nearly identical. The differences that
seem all important to us are relatively minor. (Jonathan Kaye 1989: 54).


Further reading

  • Living on the edge : 28 papers in honour of Jonathan Kaye Edited by Stefan Ploch. Berlin; New York: M. de Gruyter, 2003
  • Review of Linguistic Studies of Native Canada by Eung-Do Cook and Jonathan Kaye. M. Dale Kinkade, Language
    Language (journal)
    Language is a peer-reviewed quarterly academic journal published by the Linguistic Society of America since 1925. It covers all aspects of linguistics, focusing on the area of theoretical linguistics...

    , Vol. 56, No. 4 (Dec., 1980), pp. 891-893
  • Review of Current Approaches to African Linguistics, II by Jonathan Kaye. M. Lionel Bender. Language
    Language (journal)
    Language is a peer-reviewed quarterly academic journal published by the Linguistic Society of America since 1925. It covers all aspects of linguistics, focusing on the area of theoretical linguistics...

    , Vol. 61, No. 2 (Jun., 1985), pp. 504-505
  • Phonology: A Cognitive View, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
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