Brian Joseph

Brian D. Joseph (born November 22, 1951) is an American linguist specializing in historical linguistics. He is a Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics and the Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Linguistics at Ohio State University.^[1] His research interests include language change, Greek, Albanian, and general Balkan linguistics, and morphological theory. He was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019.

Brian Joseph
Born	(1951-11-22) November 22, 1951 (age 73)
Academic background
Alma mater	Yale University (A.B.) Harvard University (A.M., PhD)
Academic work
Discipline	Linguist
Sub-discipline	Historical linguistics Language contact Greek linguistics Albanian linguistics Balkan linguistics Morphological theory
Institutions	Ohio State University

Joseph received an A.B. in linguistics from Yale University, and his A.M. and Ph.D. in linguistics from Harvard University. After a year at the University of Alberta (September 1978 - August 1979) as an Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Post-doctoral Fellow, he moved to Ohio State University, where he has spent his entire professional career, retiring in June 2024 and becoming Professor Emeritus.^[2]

Joseph was the Vice-President of the Linguistic Society of America in 2018 and served as the organization's President in 2019 (actually from January 2019 to January 2020).^[3] He was previously President of the North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences and currently serves as co-editor of the Journal of Greek Linguistics,^[4] a journal he helped to found in 2000.

Selected bibliography

• Joseph, Brian D. (1983). The Synchrony and Diachrony of the Balkan Infinitive: A Study in Areal, General, and Historical Linguistics.
• Joseph, Brian D.; Philippaki-Warburton, Irene (1987). Modern Greek. Croom Helm.
• Joseph, Brian D.; Janda, Richard D.; Vance, Barbara S. (2003). The Handbook of Historical Linguistics. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Joseph, B. D.; Hock, H. H. (2009). Language history, language change, and language relationship: An introduction to historical and comparative linguistics. Mouton de Gruyter.
• Friedman, Victor A.; Joseph, Brian D. (2025). The Balkan Languages. Cambridge University Press.

Articles

• Janda, Richard D.; Joseph, Brian D. (2003). "Reconsidering the canons of sound-change". Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science: 147.
• Joseph, Brian D. (2000-03-01). "Is there such a thing as "grammaticalization?"". Language Sciences. 23 (2–3). Pergamon: 163–186.
• Joseph, Brian D.; Janda, Richard D. (1988). "The how and why of diachronic morphologization and demorphologization". Theoretical Morphology. Academic Press San Diego: 193–210.