Cornelis Henricus Maria "Kees" Versteegh (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkeːs fərˈsteːx];[a] born 1947) is a Dutch academic linguist.
He served as a professor of Islamic studies and the Arabic language at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands until April 2011.
[2][3][4] Versteegh graduated from Radboud University in 1977, the subject of his doctoral dissertation having been the influence of Greek on Arabic.
He was a lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies until 1987, when he took a position at the Netherlands Institute in Cairo for two years.
[1] Versteegh's research and views on the Arabic language and its evolution have been described as groundbreaking.