Alexandra Aikhenvald was born to a grandson of Yuly Aykhenvald; Natalia Shvedova was her paternal aunt. She was fascinated by languages from early childhood, picking up some Spanish from her parents' Spanish flatmate, and dreaming of majoring in Latin and Classical studies in university.[3] A friend taught her German during her high school years, and she also mastered French.
She speaks Tok Pisin, and has written a grammar of the Sepik language Manambu, a language she self-professedly occasionally dreams in.[9][10]
Research work
Aikhenvald has published work on Berber languages, Modern and Classical Hebrew, Ndu languages (specifically Manambu of East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea), alongside a number of articles and monographs on various aspects of linguistic typology.
She has worked on language contact, with reference to the multilingual area of the Vaupés River Basin.[11] She has established a typology of classifiers[12] and worked out parameters for the typology of evidentials as grammatical markers of information sources.[13] In addition, she authored a grammar of Warekena and of Tariana, both Arawak languages, in addition to a Tariana–Portuguese dictionary (available online).
^Alexandra Aikhenvald [The Manambu Language of East Sepik, Papua New Guinea] Oxford University Press, 2008 p.xvi.
^Maria Zijlstra (ed.) 'Me & other languages,''RN summer series, part 1: 9 February 2008:'When I travelled to New Guinea, I had to learn Tok Pisin -- the major language of Papua New Guinea, a really delightful enterprise. Manambu is my other favourite language, in which I dream every so often.'