Vitaly Shevoroshkin

Who is Vitaly Shevoroshkin?

Vitaly Victorovich Shevoroshkin, Russ. Виталий Викторович Шеворошкин, is an American linguist of Russian origin, specializing in the study of ancient Mediterranean languages. Shevoroshkin was born in 1932 in Georgia. In the 1960s he tried to decipher Carian inscriptions and proved that their language belonged to Anatolian languages. In the 1970s he emigrated to the United States. He is now a professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Linguistics at the University of Michigan.

Shevoroshkin is also a leader in the study of language in prehistory, and in publicizing the recent work of paleolinguists, especially Russians. In 1988 he and Benjamin Stolz organized the First International Interdisciplinary Symposium on Language and Prehistory, at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus. Forty-six scholars participated as presenters and discussants, sixteen of which were from Russia and other eastern European countries. This symposium led to renewed cooperation among historical linguists, archeologists, and physical anthropologists from East and West.

Some of his work on remote linguistic relationship relationships and the hypothetical Proto-World language is controversial.