David Nash

Who is David Nash?

David Nash is a prominent Australian field linguist, specialising in the Aboriginal languages of Australia. Brought up in Parkes, New South Wales, he received a BA in pure mathematics from the Australian National University followed by an M.A. in Linguistics. He then went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied with Ken Hale and received his PhD in Linguistics in 1980. Before returning to Australia, he worked on the Lexicon Project at MIT. In 2005 he was Ken Hale Professor at the Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute. He works as a consultant for various Aboriginal organisations. He is also a Visiting Fellow of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Nash is an expert on Warlpiri and other languages of the Northern Territory of Australia as well as on the oral history of the Aboriginal peoples of this area. In this capacity, in addition to his purely scholarly work, he has provided expert testimony regarding land claims. He is also known for his knowledge of the history of research on Australian Aboriginal languages.