Professor
Chinese Program Coordinator
Korean Program Coordinator
Biography
Ph.D. Chinese Language, University of California, Berkeley, 1998
M.A. East Asian Languages, University of California, Berkeley, 1992
A.B. Mathematics, Harvard College, 1988
Curriculum Vitae
(202.62 KB)
Current Research Projects:
- Comparative study of the development of Sinographic (Chinese-character based) writing systems in Asia.
- History of the Northern Min dialects of Fujian Province.
Research
Selected Research
- Handel, Zev. Chinese Characters across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. University of Washington Press, 2025.
- Handel, Zev. Sinography: The Borrowing and Adaptation of the Chinese Script. Brill. April, 2019. Print.
- Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, 5 volumes, ed. by Rint Sybesma, Wolfgang Behr, Yueguo Gu, Zev Handel, C.-T. James Huang, and James Myers. Leiden: Brill. 2017.
- Zev Handel. Old Chinese Medials and their Sino-Tibetan Origins: A Comparative Study. Monograph series, Linguistics Institute, Academia Sinica, 2010.
- Zev Handel. "Reflections on the historical origin of the Northern Min softened initials." Language and Linguistics 10.1 (2009): 1-16.
- Zev Handel. "Preliminary remarks on the influence of linguistic typology on Asian sinography." SCRIPTA 1.1 (2009).
- Zev Handel. "What is Sino-Tibetan? Snapshot of a field and a language family in flux." Language and Linguistics Compass 2.3 (2008): 4222-441.
- Zev Handel. "Notes on Old Chinese bilabial dissimilation, with reference to yì 邑 ‘city’ and yōng 邕 ‘moat’." Linguistic studies in Chinese and neighboring languages: Festschrift in honor of Professor Pang-Hsin Ting on his 70th birthday, ed. Dah-an Ho et al.. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 2007. 1013-1033.
- Zev Handel. "The *-i-/*-ji- distinction in the Old Chinese reconstruction system of Li Fang-kuei." Journal of Chinese Linguistics 32.2 (2004): 179-199.
- Zev Handel. "Methodological considerations in the application of Tibeto-Burman comparison to the reconstruction of Old Chinese." Studies on Sino-Tibetan languages: papers in honor of Professor Hwang-cherng Gong on his seventieth birthday, ed. Ying-chin Lin et al. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, 2004. 603-620.
- Zev Handel. "Northern Min tone values and the reconstruction of 'softened initials'." Language and Linguistics 4.1 (2003): 47-84.
- Zev Handel. "Rethinking the medials of Old Chinese: Where are the r's?." Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 31.1 (2002): 3-32.
- Zev Handel. "Proto-Lolo-Burmese velar clusters and the origin of Lisu palatal sibilants." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 25.1 (2002): 95-112.
Courses Taught
Autumn 2025
Spring 2025
Winter 2025
Autumn 2023
Autumn 2022
Winter 2022
Autumn 2020
Spring 2020
Winter 2020
Autumn 2019
Winter 2019
Autumn 2018
Spring 2018
Winter 2018
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