Leon_Serafim
Leon Serafim
American academic
Leon Angelo Serafim (born May 23, 1945) is an American academic.[1] He is a Japanologist, linguistic historian and professor emeritus of the University of Hawaiʻi.
The widely accepted linguistics term "Japonic languages" was coined by Serafim to identify and characterise the Japanese which is spoken on the main islands of Japan and the Ryukyuan spoken on the island of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands.[2]