Matthew Dryer

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

Dryer is also an editor of the World Atlas of Language Structures. This big project gathers information about many languages from all over the world. He has studied ideas called markedness, which help explain why some word orders feel more natural.

In addition to his work on word order, Dryer has studied the Kutenai language. He is now 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 people use language.