Jonathan Kaye (born 1942) studied linguistics at Columbia University under Uriel Weinreich and Robert Austelitz, earning his Ph.D. in 1970.
He wrote his thesis on Desano, a South American language he studied through a year of field work in the Amazon.
In 1974 he spent his sabbatical leave as a visiting professor at McGill University, and in 1975 he accepted a position at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
He was the primary editor of volume 2 of Current Approaches to African Linguistics, printed by Walter de Gruyter publishing house in 1983.
2003 saw the publication of Living on the Edge: 28 Papers in Honour of Jonathan Kaye, a book dedicated to his life and work.