Harry Stroomer

Prof. Harry Stroomer (1946) is emeritus professor of Afroasiatic languages, in particular Berber and the South Semitic languages at Leiden University. His research focuses on language description and oral literature, and has taken him to countries such as Egypt, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen. From 1977 to 1985 he did linguistic research on the Oromo dialects in Kenya. Since 1985, his specialist field has been Berber languages and cultures of Morocco; he also introduced Berber languages as a course subject at the University of Leiden in 1986. Moreover, Stroomer is founder and editor-in-chief of Berber Studies, an international monograph series created in 2001 and currently encompassing 57 volumes.

Keywords: Berber, dialectology, oral literature, Arabic.