He is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Service Professor in Humanities at the University of Chicago.
Friedman was born in Chicago into a family of descendants of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire and Romania.
Friedman's PhD was in Slavic languages and literatures and in general linguistics at the University of Chicago in 1975.
From 1975 until 1993, Friedman taught at the University of North Carolina, where he served as department chairman.
His expertise extends over all languages of the Balkans and the Caucasus, including Albanian, Aromanian, Azeri, Bosnian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Greek, Judezmo, Lak, Macedonian, Romanian, Romani, Russian, Serbian, Tadjik, and Turkish.