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Nicholas Evans (born 1956) is an Australianlinguist and a leading expert onendangered languages. He was born inLos Angeles.^[1]

Holding aPh.D. inLinguistics from theAustralian National University (ANU), he is Head of the Department of Linguistics and Distinguished Professor in the School of Culture, History and Language at the College of Asia and the Pacific at ANU. Formerly, he held a personal chair in the Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at theUniversity of Melbourne.

His research interests includeAboriginal Australian languages,Papuan languages,linguistic typology,historical andcontact linguistics,semantics, and the mutual influence of language and culture. He worked at theDublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 2003 for the school of Celtic Studies.^[2] Recent focuses include the way in which diverse grammars underpin social cognition (with Alan Rumsey and others); ongoing fieldwork on various Aboriginal languages of Northern Australia (Dalabon,Iwaidja,Marrku,Bininj Kunwok,Kayardild); Papuan languages (Nen,Idi), work on endangered song-language traditions of WesternArnhem Land (with Allan Marett,Linda Barwick and Murray Garde), and the development of coevolutionary approaches that integrate the dynamic interactions between language, culture and cognition. In addition to his linguistic research he has carried out more applied work inAustralian Aboriginal communities in various capacities, including interpreting and preparing anthropologists' reports in Native Title claims, and writing about the new art being produced by artists fromBentinck Island.^{[citation needed]}

Evans signed theDeclaration on the Common Language of theCroats,Serbs,Bosniaks andMontenegrins in 2019.^[3]

Evans was elected a Fellow of theAustralian Academy of the Humanities in 1996.^[4]

In 2013, he was awarded anAustralian Laureate Fellowship.^[5]

In 2025, he was awarded theNeil and Saras Smith Medal for Linguistics by theBritish Academy.^[6][7]

• Evans, Nicholas (2011).Dying Words: Endangered Languages and What They Have to Tell Us, John Wiley & Sons.ISBN 978-1-444-35961-9.
• Evans, Nicholas & Stephen C. Levinson (2009) "The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science".Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32(5).
• Evans, Nicholas; Martin-Chew, Louise;Memmott, Paul; Woomera Aboriginal Corporation. Mornington Island Arts & Craft (2008),The heart of everything: the art and artists of Mornington & Bentinck Islands, McCulloch & McCulloch Australian Art Books,ISBN 978-0-9804494-1-9^[8]
• Evans, Nicholas (2005). "Australian Languages Reconsidered: A Review of Dixon (2002)".Oceanic Linguistics 44 (1), pp. 242–286.
• Evans, Nicholas (ed.) (2003).The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. x + 513.
• Evans, Nicholas (2003).Bininj Gun-wok: a pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune. (2 volumes). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• Evans, Nicholas & Hans-Jürgen Sasse (eds) (2002).Problems of Polysynthesis. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Studia Typologica, Neue Reihe.
• Evans, Nicholas (1998). "Aborigines Speak a Primitive Language". In: Bauer, Laurie; Trudgill, Peter.Language Myths, Penguin Books, pp. 159–168.ISBN 978-0-141-93910-0.
• McConvell, Patrick; Evans, Nicholas, eds. (1997).Archaeology and Linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in Global Perspective. Melbourne: Oxford University Press Australia.ISBN 0-19-553728-9.
• Evans, Nicholas (1995).A Grammar of Kayardild. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

• Professor Nicholas Evans - Researchers - ANU, anu.edu.au.
• Languages of Southern New Guinea - SNG Project, anu.edu.au.
• "Evans, Nicholas (1956-) [search]".Trove. National Library of Australia.

• 1956 births
• Linguists from Australia
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• Australian National University alumni
• Academic staff of the Australian National University
• Academic staff of the University of Melbourne
• Linguists of Australian Aboriginal languages
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• Linguists of Gunwinyguan languages
• Linguists of Papuan languages
• Linguists of Yam languages
• Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language
• Corresponding fellows of the British Academy
• Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
• Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

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