GREENBERG, JOSEPH H(AROLD)

born May 28, 1915, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S. American anthropologist and linguist specializing in African culture and in language universals. Greenberg's classification of African languages, first published in 1955 and in a revised edition (Languages of Africa) in 1963, postulated four families: Niger-Kordofanian, Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan. As a linguist, Greenberg is also noted for his early interest in language universals: he edited Universals of Language (1963) and Universals of Human Language, 4 vol. (1978). Greenberg received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., in 1940. In 1962 he became a professor of anthropology and linguistics at Stanford (Calif.) University.