Ronald P. Schaefer (born June 17, 1949), also known as Ron Schaefer is an American academic, English professor, and linguist. He is the first person "to devise a written version of a language called Emai", a language reported in 1997 to be spoken by about 30,000 Emai people in Edo State of Nigeria. He has been described as one with "fevered intellect, the sharp chin, the untamable kineticism."