Willem Adelaar

Willem F. H. Adelaar (born 1948 at The Hague) is a Dutch linguist specializing in Native American languages, specially those of the Andes. He is a Professor of Indigenous American Linguistics and Cultures at Leiden University.

He has written broadly about the Quechua, Aymara and Mapuche languages. His main works are his 2004 The languages of the Andes, an overview of the indigenous languages of the Andean region, which is considered a "classic" in the field. His Dutch language publications about the history and religion of the Inca and translations of Quechua chronicles have met with a broad public. A specialist on minority languages and language endangerment, he is also editor of UNESCO's "Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger".

In 1994, he was given a newly created Professorial chair in "Languages and Cultures of Native America" at the University of Leiden. He is noted for his belief that the linguistic diversity of the Americas suggests a deeper history of population than the standard account of the settlement of the Americas.

In 2014, he was made Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion in recognition of his scientific achievements. He also holds an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos of Lima, Peru. In 2019, he was elected a member of Academia Europaea.

Selected publications

 * regional editor for South America
 * Linguistic and anthropological studies with special emphasis on the languages and cultures of the Andean-Amazonian border area
 * Linguistic and anthropological studies with special emphasis on the languages and cultures of the Andean-Amazonian border area