Harold Schiffman (University of Pennsylvania)

Harold F. Schiffman
Professor Emeritus of Dravidian Linguistics
University of Pennsylvania

Mailing Address:		
Dept. of South Asia Studies
820 Williams Hall, Box 6305
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

phone: 856-216-0513
Fax:   215-573-2138
email: haroldfs@gmail.com
URL:   http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

description of work:

My research interests focus on the linguistics of the Dravidian languages, 
especially Tamil, and to a lesser extent, Kannada, and in the area of 
language policy. I have published in these two areas where overlapping 
interests in sociolinguistics (diglossia, language standardization, 
multilingualism) intersect with language policy and the politics of 
language. I am also director of the Consortium for Language Policy and 
Planning, and recently finished a stint as Pedagogical Materials Director 
of the National South Asia Language Resource Center. Recent publications 
include Linguistic Culture and Language Policy (Routledge 1996) and A 
Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil (Cambridge University Press, 1999). My 
English Dictionary of the Tamil Verb was published on DVD in 2007 and on 
paper (available from Cre-A Publishers, in India) in 2009.

My publications are listed on my website at:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/newpenncv.html

Keywords: language policy, diglossia, grammaticalization, language
standardization, multilingualism, Tamil, Sri Lanka, India