Marian Klamer


Marian Klamer is a linguist who specializes in Austronesian and Papuan languages. Her interests include the documentation of minority languages, Malay language varieties, linguistic typology, historical linguistics, and language contact.

Early life and education

Klamer was born in Pirimapun village in what is now Safan District, Asmat Regency, Papua province, Indonesia, and spent her childhood there. In 1990, she completed a Master's degree in General Linguistics at VU Amsterdam. She obtained her doctorate in 1994 on the basis of Kambera: a language of Eastern Indonesia.

Career and publications

Klamer conducts extensive linguistic research in eastern Indonesia. As of 2019, she is a professor at Leiden University. She is the author of 50 articles and a number of scientific publications, including grammatical descriptions of the Kambera, Teiwa, and Alor languages.
In 2019 Klamer was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.