Paul Newman

Who is Paul Newman?

Paul Newman is an American linguist of great influence in the study of African languages. He is the world’s leading authority on the Hausa language of Nigeria and on the Chadic language family. His best-known works are the Modern Hausa-English Dictionary, co-authored with his wife, Roxana Ma Newman, and The Hausa Language: An Encyclopedic Reference Grammar. He is the founder of the Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, the leading journal in the field of African-language studies.

He has taught at Yale University, the University of Leiden, and the Centre for the Study of Nigerian Languages at Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria. He is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Indiana University after serving two terms as chairman of the department.

Newman is a strong advocate of the theories of his mentor, Joseph Greenberg, and has published a work in defense of Greenberg’s classification of African languages entitled On Being Right.

Newman is also interested in the relation of language and law and is a strong advocate of civil liberties. In addition to degrees in anthropology and linguistics he holds a JD and is a member of the Indiana state bar.