Matthew Dryer

Matthew S. Dryer is a professor of linguistics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He studies how languages are structured and how words are arranged in sentences. His work on word order has been used and mentioned by many other researchers.

Dryer is also one of the editors of the World Atlas of Language Structures, a big project that collects information about many languages from around the world. He has looked closely at ideas called markedness, which help explain why some word orders feel more natural than others.

In addition to his work on word order, Dryer has studied the Kutenai language. Right now, he is working with a colleague named Lea Brown to learn more about several languages spoken in Papua New Guinea, including Walman. His research helps us understand the many ways humans use language.