Alan Jeffrey "Jerry" Nussbaum (born December 17, 1947) is an American linguist of the Indo-European languages and a classical philologist, best known for his work on the language of the Homeric epics and modern and Proto-Indo-European nominals. He has specialized in nominals' derivational semantics and morphology (including that of the "Caland system").[1] He is a professor of Indo-European linguistics, and the Greek and Latin languages at Cornell University.[1]
Nussbaum, of Galician Jewish background, was born in New York City and raised in Passaic, New Jersey. He received a bachelor's degree in classics (1969) from Washington Square College of New York University, a Diploma in Comparative Philology (1974) from the University of Oxford, and a Ph.D. in linguistics (1976) from Harvard University.[1] After teaching as an instructor, assistant professor, and associate professor at Yale University (1975–85), he moved to Cornell as an associate professor (1985–97) and then as full professor (1997–present) of classics and linguistics.
Nussbaum was married to philosopher Martha Nussbaum, professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago, from 1969 to 1987.[2]