Edward J. Vajda is a historical linguist at Western Washington University. He has become known for his work on the proposed Dené–Yeniseian language family, seeking to establish that the Ket language of Siberia has a common linguistic ancestor with the Na-Dené languages of North America. He began to study the Ket language in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union; he interviewed Ket speakers in Germany and later traveled to Tomsk in southwestern Siberia to perform fieldwork. In August 2008 he became the first North American to visit the Ket homeland in north-central Siberia's Turukhansky District, where he conducted intensive fieldwork with some of the remaining Ket speakers. Vajda's 67-page article "A Siberian link with Na-Dene languages" has been published in 2010 in the Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska.
Publications
Ket (Languages of the World/Materials Volume 204.) Munich: Lincom Europa, 2004.
Yeniseian Peoples and Languages: a history of their study with an annotated bibliography and a source guide. Surrey, England: Curzon Press, 2001. (389 pages)
Edward Vajda - Tlingit and the Dene-Yeniseian Hypothesis
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published: 02 Feb 2021
J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginary languages - by Edward Vajda, WWU Linguistics Program director
J.R.R. Tolkien, wildly popular for his authorship of the fantasy trilogy "The Lord of the Rings," was by profession an unprepossessing Medievalist and historical linguist.
In this lecture, delivered at Western Washington University Nov. 14, 2012, Edward Vajda, a professor in the Modern and Classical Languages Department at Western, discusses "Tolkien's Imaginary Languages."
Tolkien's extensive knowledge of world languages both ancient and modern lent itself to his creation of the artificial languages that add so much realistic depth to his fictional writing. Vajda's presentation will describe the languages Tolkien created for his Middle Earth by revealing their connection with the actual spoken languages he studied during his academic career.
Watch this lecture to explore the ingenious ...
published: 24 Nov 2012
Vajda Sino-Caucasian
Edward Vajda lecture on the Ket language and distant genetic relationships: “Assessing the Sino-Caucasian Hypothesis”, Conference “Comparative Historical Linguistics of the 21st Century”, Moscow, Russian State University of the Humanities, March 20-22, 2013. Recorded by Matthew Anderson, University Communications, Western Washington University.
published: 05 Nov 2015
'The Mongol Impact on World History' - Ed Vajda, WWU
Edward Vajda, a professor with the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Western Washington University, presents "The Mongol Impact on World History." As part of celebrating Mongolia Day at WWU, Vajda discusses the spectacular consequences of the Mongol conquests begun in the 13th century by Chinggis Khan. The lecture explains how the medieval era ended and the modern world began in the wake of history's most successful empire builder.
published: 27 Oct 2009
Ket Language Structure
Edward Vajda lecture on how Ket language structure was gradually affected by the unrelated neighboring languages. Title: “Areal features in Yeniseian grammaticalization”, a talk given for the symposium Areal patterns of grammaticalization and cross-linguistic variation in grammaticalization scenarios. Mainz, March 12-14, 2015 Recorded by Matthew Anderson, University Communications, Western Washington University.
To share your feedback on our lecture series, please go ahead and fill out a short survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SHILectures
Learn more about Sealaska...
To share your feedback on our lecture series, please go ahead and fill out a short survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SHILectures
Learn more about Sealaska Heritage here: https://www.sealaskaheritage.org/
https://www.facebook.com/SHInstitute/
https://www.instagram.com/shinstitute/
https://twitter.com/SHInstitute
To share your feedback on our lecture series, please go ahead and fill out a short survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SHILectures
Learn more about Sealaska Heritage here: https://www.sealaskaheritage.org/
https://www.facebook.com/SHInstitute/
https://www.instagram.com/shinstitute/
https://twitter.com/SHInstitute
J.R.R. Tolkien, wildly popular for his authorship of the fantasy trilogy "The Lord of the Rings," was by profession an unprepossessing Medievalist and historica...
J.R.R. Tolkien, wildly popular for his authorship of the fantasy trilogy "The Lord of the Rings," was by profession an unprepossessing Medievalist and historical linguist.
In this lecture, delivered at Western Washington University Nov. 14, 2012, Edward Vajda, a professor in the Modern and Classical Languages Department at Western, discusses "Tolkien's Imaginary Languages."
Tolkien's extensive knowledge of world languages both ancient and modern lent itself to his creation of the artificial languages that add so much realistic depth to his fictional writing. Vajda's presentation will describe the languages Tolkien created for his Middle Earth by revealing their connection with the actual spoken languages he studied during his academic career.
Watch this lecture to explore the ingenious sound symbolism and etymological connotations employed by this master storyteller—and learn a great many things about the real languages of Eurasia along the way.
Sponsored by the WWU Linguistics Club.
J.R.R. Tolkien, wildly popular for his authorship of the fantasy trilogy "The Lord of the Rings," was by profession an unprepossessing Medievalist and historical linguist.
In this lecture, delivered at Western Washington University Nov. 14, 2012, Edward Vajda, a professor in the Modern and Classical Languages Department at Western, discusses "Tolkien's Imaginary Languages."
Tolkien's extensive knowledge of world languages both ancient and modern lent itself to his creation of the artificial languages that add so much realistic depth to his fictional writing. Vajda's presentation will describe the languages Tolkien created for his Middle Earth by revealing their connection with the actual spoken languages he studied during his academic career.
Watch this lecture to explore the ingenious sound symbolism and etymological connotations employed by this master storyteller—and learn a great many things about the real languages of Eurasia along the way.
Sponsored by the WWU Linguistics Club.
Edward Vajda lecture on the Ket language and distant genetic relationships: “Assessing the Sino-Caucasian Hypothesis”, Conference “Comparative Historical Lingui...
Edward Vajda lecture on the Ket language and distant genetic relationships: “Assessing the Sino-Caucasian Hypothesis”, Conference “Comparative Historical Linguistics of the 21st Century”, Moscow, Russian State University of the Humanities, March 20-22, 2013. Recorded by Matthew Anderson, University Communications, Western Washington University.
Edward Vajda lecture on the Ket language and distant genetic relationships: “Assessing the Sino-Caucasian Hypothesis”, Conference “Comparative Historical Linguistics of the 21st Century”, Moscow, Russian State University of the Humanities, March 20-22, 2013. Recorded by Matthew Anderson, University Communications, Western Washington University.
Edward Vajda, a professor with the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Western Washington University, presents "The Mongol Impact on World History."...
Edward Vajda, a professor with the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Western Washington University, presents "The Mongol Impact on World History." As part of celebrating Mongolia Day at WWU, Vajda discusses the spectacular consequences of the Mongol conquests begun in the 13th century by Chinggis Khan. The lecture explains how the medieval era ended and the modern world began in the wake of history's most successful empire builder.
Edward Vajda, a professor with the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Western Washington University, presents "The Mongol Impact on World History." As part of celebrating Mongolia Day at WWU, Vajda discusses the spectacular consequences of the Mongol conquests begun in the 13th century by Chinggis Khan. The lecture explains how the medieval era ended and the modern world began in the wake of history's most successful empire builder.
Edward Vajda lecture on how Ket language structure was gradually affected by the unrelated neighboring languages. Title: “Areal features in Yeniseian grammatica...
Edward Vajda lecture on how Ket language structure was gradually affected by the unrelated neighboring languages. Title: “Areal features in Yeniseian grammaticalization”, a talk given for the symposium Areal patterns of grammaticalization and cross-linguistic variation in grammaticalization scenarios. Mainz, March 12-14, 2015 Recorded by Matthew Anderson, University Communications, Western Washington University.
Edward Vajda lecture on how Ket language structure was gradually affected by the unrelated neighboring languages. Title: “Areal features in Yeniseian grammaticalization”, a talk given for the symposium Areal patterns of grammaticalization and cross-linguistic variation in grammaticalization scenarios. Mainz, March 12-14, 2015 Recorded by Matthew Anderson, University Communications, Western Washington University.
To share your feedback on our lecture series, please go ahead and fill out a short survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SHILectures
Learn more about Sealaska Heritage here: https://www.sealaskaheritage.org/
https://www.facebook.com/SHInstitute/
https://www.instagram.com/shinstitute/
https://twitter.com/SHInstitute
J.R.R. Tolkien, wildly popular for his authorship of the fantasy trilogy "The Lord of the Rings," was by profession an unprepossessing Medievalist and historical linguist.
In this lecture, delivered at Western Washington University Nov. 14, 2012, Edward Vajda, a professor in the Modern and Classical Languages Department at Western, discusses "Tolkien's Imaginary Languages."
Tolkien's extensive knowledge of world languages both ancient and modern lent itself to his creation of the artificial languages that add so much realistic depth to his fictional writing. Vajda's presentation will describe the languages Tolkien created for his Middle Earth by revealing their connection with the actual spoken languages he studied during his academic career.
Watch this lecture to explore the ingenious sound symbolism and etymological connotations employed by this master storyteller—and learn a great many things about the real languages of Eurasia along the way.
Sponsored by the WWU Linguistics Club.
Edward Vajda lecture on the Ket language and distant genetic relationships: “Assessing the Sino-Caucasian Hypothesis”, Conference “Comparative Historical Linguistics of the 21st Century”, Moscow, Russian State University of the Humanities, March 20-22, 2013. Recorded by Matthew Anderson, University Communications, Western Washington University.
Edward Vajda, a professor with the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Western Washington University, presents "The Mongol Impact on World History." As part of celebrating Mongolia Day at WWU, Vajda discusses the spectacular consequences of the Mongol conquests begun in the 13th century by Chinggis Khan. The lecture explains how the medieval era ended and the modern world began in the wake of history's most successful empire builder.
Edward Vajda lecture on how Ket language structure was gradually affected by the unrelated neighboring languages. Title: “Areal features in Yeniseian grammaticalization”, a talk given for the symposium Areal patterns of grammaticalization and cross-linguistic variation in grammaticalization scenarios. Mainz, March 12-14, 2015 Recorded by Matthew Anderson, University Communications, Western Washington University.
Edward J. Vajda is a historical linguist at Western Washington University. He has become known for his work on the proposed Dené–Yeniseian language family, seeking to establish that the Ket language of Siberia has a common linguistic ancestor with the Na-Dené languages of North America. He began to study the Ket language in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union; he interviewed Ket speakers in Germany and later traveled to Tomsk in southwestern Siberia to perform fieldwork. In August 2008 he became the first North American to visit the Ket homeland in north-central Siberia's Turukhansky District, where he conducted intensive fieldwork with some of the remaining Ket speakers. Vajda's 67-page article "A Siberian link with Na-Dene languages" has been published in 2010 in the Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska.
Publications
Ket (Languages of the World/Materials Volume 204.) Munich: Lincom Europa, 2004.
Yeniseian Peoples and Languages: a history of their study with an annotated bibliography and a source guide. Surrey, England: Curzon Press, 2001. (389 pages)