Eric P. Hamp - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Eric Pratt Hamp is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

linguist. Born in London, England on November 16, 1920, he grew up in The United States from age 5 onward due to his father's posting by a British shipping firm. He received his BA in 1942 from Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

, PhD from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

in 1954 and taught at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

from 1950, where he is Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Departments of Linguistics, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Psychology (Cognition and Communication) and the Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World, until his retirement in 1991. His fields of interest include Indo-European linguistics, particularly Celtic languages

Celtic languages

The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...

, and Albanian

Albanian language

Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...

. He is also known for his interest in, and expertise, on the smaller Indo-European languages. Unlike many Indo-Europeanists, who work entirely on the basis of written materials, he has conducted extensive fieldwork on lesser-known Indo-European languages and dialects, such as Albanian

Albanian language

, Breton

Breton language

Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...

, Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

, Irish

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

, and Scots Gaelic. His wide-ranging interests, however, have also included American Indian languages. He served for many years as editor of the International Journal of American Linguistics

International Journal of American Linguistics

The International Journal of American Linguistics is an academic journal published by the University of Chicago devoted to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas. It was established in 1917 by anthropologist Franz Boas...

and did field work on Quileute

Quileute language

Quileute , also known as Quillayute , is the only surviving Chimakuan language, spoken by a few Quileute and Makah elders on the western coast of the Olympic peninsula south of Cape Flattery at La Push and the lower Hoh River in Washington state, USA...

and Ojibwa

Ojibwa

The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...

.

In 1960 he held the Hermann and Klara H. Collitz

Hermann Collitz

Hermann Collitz, Ph. D. was an eminent German historical linguist and Indo-Europeanist, who spent much of his career in the United States...

Professorship for Comparative Philology at the Linguistic Society of America

Linguistic Society of America

The Linguistic Society of America is a professional society for linguists. It was founded in 1924 to advance linguistics, the scientific study of human language. The LSA has over 5,000 individual members and welcomes linguists of all kinds. It works to advance the discipline and to communicate...

Summer Institute. He has received five festschriften for general, Balkan (twice), Native American, Indo-European and Celtic linguistic work, 1980-97. In 1981 he was honored with Studies in Balkan Linguistics to Honor Eric P. Hamp on his Sixtieth Birthday, Folia Slavica 4, 2-3, edited by Howard I. Aronson and Bill J. Darden.
In 1990 he was honored with Celtic Language, Celtic Culture: A Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp,
edited by A.T. E. Matonis and Daniel F. Melia. He is a member of many academies which include but are not limited to the Royal Danish Academy and the Albanian Academy of Sciences, and holds honorary doctorates from Amherst College

Amherst College

, University of Wales

University of Wales

The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...

, and the University of Calabria

University of Calabria

The University of Calabria is a state-run university in Italy.Located in Arcavacata di Rende, a suburb of Cosenza, the university was founded in 1972...

.

In spite of his advanced age, he continues to write,speak and travel to select meetings and conferences, and remains an Associate Editor of the journal Anthropological Linguistics
Anthropological linguistics
Anthropological linguistics is the study of the relations between language and culture and the relations between human biology, cognition and language...

. For more detailed information, please see below.

Education

BA, Amherst College, 1942,
MA, Harvard University, 1948,
PhD in Linguistics, Harvard University, 1954,
LHD (hon.), Amherst College, 1972,
DLitt (hon.), University of Wales, 1987, University of Calabria, 2000,
Felicitation, University of Delhi, 1989.

Career

Chief lend-lease, government of Union South Africa, 1942–46; member faculty University Chicago, 1950—, professor linguistics, 1962–91, professor behavioral sciences and psychology, 1971–91, professor Slavic languages, 1980–91, Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service professor, 1973–91, Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service professor emeritus, 1991—, director Center Balkan and Slavic Studies, 1965–91, chairman department linguistics, 1966–69; research associate School Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Ireland, 1989—; member department Albanian language University Shkodër, Albania, 1994—; visiting lecturer University of Michigan, 1953, University of Washington, summer 1962; member staff Gaelic Dialect Survey, University Edinburgh, Scotland, 1956, 57, 58, 84—; Collitz professor University of Texas, summer 1960; Thurneysen lecturer University Bonn, Federal Republic Germany, 1989; Poultney lecturer Johns Hopkins University, 1990; University Shkodër, Albania, 1993.

Career Related

Visiting professor linguistics University Beograd, Yugoslavia, 1964, 67, Indiana University, summer 1964, University Copenhagen, 1966, University of Tbilisi, Georgia, USSR 1968, University Bucharest, Romania, 1975, University Salzburg, Austria, 1979, 82, University Calabria, Italy, 1989, 91, 93, 96, 99-2009, University Shkodër, Albania, 1993, 96; U.S. cultural exch. lecturer Romania, summer 1966, USSR, spring 1975, 88; Armenia 1982, 88, associate director Linguistic Institute University Illinois, summer 1968; visiting scholar Institute for Humanities, Pennsylvania State University, 1969, University Vilnius, Lithuania, 1990; chairman subcom. linguistics Committee Instnl. Cooperative, 1963–66; member committee automatic language processing NAS-NRC, 1964; member committee linguistic information Center Applied Linguistics, 1964–68; chairman committee language programs. Am. Council Learned Societies, 1963–69; member international adv. board University Leiden Institute Language Description and Comparison, 1987—, committee linguistic atlas Scotland (Gaelic section), 1986—; member linguistic committee Ind. University Press, 1965–73; chairman Committee for Illinois Place-Name Survey, 1966—; member area adv. committee for E. Europe, Council International Exchange Scholars, 1966–78; member adv. subcom. for linguistics National Science Foundation, 1977–79; member Am. committee Association International d'Etudes du Sud-Est Européen, 1968—, chairman 1979-85; member U.S. National Commission for United Nations Educational, 1972–77; member International Committee Study Celtic Cultures, 1983—; member committee International England Braille Linguistics, 1994— (active 1974-96).

Creative Works

Author: A Glossary of American Technical Linguistic Usage, 3d rev. ed., 1966, Vaccarizzo Albanese Phonology, 1993; (with others) Language and Machines, 1966; co-editor Readings in Linguistics I & II, abridged ed., 1995, Languages and Areas: Studies presented to George V. Bobrinskoy, 1967, Themes in Linguistics: The 1970s, 1973; advisory editor: Foundations of Language 1964-74, Studies in Language, 1974–79, General Linguistics, 1966–91, Papers in Language and Lit., 1965–92, Journal Linguistics, 1971–81, Journal Indo-European Studies, 1972—, Folia Linguistica Historica, 1978–98, Ann. of Armenian Linguistics, 1978—, Anthropological Linguistics, 1981—, Etudes Celtiques, 1982—, Journal Historical Linguistics and Philology, 1982–90, Glossologia (Athens), 1983–99, Jewish Language Rev. (Haifa), 1983, Medieval Language Rev., 1991—, Linguistics Abstracts, 1985, 95, Voprosy Jazykoznanija (Moscow), 1988–92, Studia Indogermanica, 1990—, Albanica, 1991–93; associate editor: International Journal Am. Linguistics, 1967–92, emeritus editor, 1992—, Native American Texts Series, 1974—, founding editor; Atlas Linguarum Europae, 1984—; section head comparative and hist. linguistics: Celtic and Albanian sections Modern Language Association Ann. Bibliography, 1969–82; advisor: Encyclopedia Brit., 1969–2000, member advisory committee, 1985–2000; member adv. board and contributor Pergamon-Aberdeen Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 1988–94; member Advisory Board Slavia Centralis, 2009—; adv. and project linguist Braille Reading and Language Programs and Braille Research Center, Am. Printing House for the Blind, 1977–96, member International English Braille Linguistics committee, 1994—; editor for etymologies: Random House Unabridged Dictionary (rev. ed.); Participant in Yeniseic-Tlingit-Athabaskan Familial Proof, Tokyo, Leipzig and Alaska 2004,-06, 08, 10; author ca. 1,500 articles in field.

Awards

John Woodruff Simpson fellow Amherst College to University Pennsylvania for linguistics, 1946 for Sanskrit, to Johns Hopkins University, 1947, Sheldon Traveling fellow Harvard University for Breton, Celtic & Albanian, 1949–50, Fulbright Hays fellow in Yugoslavia, 1966–67, Guggenheim fellow for Albanian dialects, 1973–74; Fulbright senior research scholar University Athens and all mainland Greece, Greece, 1955–56; Social Scis. Research Coun.- American Council Learned Societies grantee in Albanian dialectology, 1960–61, American Philosophical Society grantee in conserving Quileute language, 1969–70, National Science Foundation grantee in Breton dialects, 1971–73; named honorary citizen Vaccarizzo Albanese, 1993; recipient Derek Allen Celtic prize, British Academy, 1994, and prizes for work with minorities in Levadhiá (Greece), and Ciro Marina Krotone, Calabria (Italy), 1998, Skopje (Makedonija), 2004; International prize for best book in Albanology for reprint volume of translated 30 publications from 1955 to present, 2008; Festschriften for general, Balkan (twice), Native American, Indo-European and Celtic linguistic work, 1980-97.

Memberships

Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy Arts and Sciences (through 2004; membership committee 1982-84), American Anthropological Association (through 2005), Royal Society Edinburgh (hon.); member Modern Language Association (secretary Celtic section 1954, 78, also other positions), Royal Irish Academy (hon.), American Association Promotion of Bulgarian Culture (hon. chairman 1991—), Kosovë Academy Sciences and Arts (hon.), Society Bulgarian Linguists (hon. member 1986—, Sofia), American Philosophical Society (member various committees), Linguistic Society of America (executive committee 1954-56, vice president 1963, 70, president 1971, also other positions 1960—, Fellow 2006), Society European Anthropology, Society Linguistic Anthropological, Philological Society (London), Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, Medieval Academy Ireland, Forum on Languages of Scotland and Ulster, Society de Linguistique de Paris (through ca. 1992), Society Linguistica Europea, Society Italiana di Glottologia, Society Filologica Friulana, Acoustical Society Am., Am. Names Society (board managers 1969-72), Traditional Cosmology Society, Association Advancement of Baltic Studies (through 2004), North Cen. Name Society, Am. Association Southeast European Studies, Bulgarian Studies Association, Romanian Studies Association (director 1976-79, nominating committee 1984-85), Society Slovene Studies (editorial committee 1979—), Society Albanian Studies (executive committee 1978—), Society Armenian Studies, Society for Study Caucasia, Celtic Studies Association, North America (permanent hon. member, chairman nominating committee 1986-87), Gypsy Lore Society, Society Study Indigenous Languages Americas (hon. member, vice president 1985-86, president 1986-87), Phi Beta Kappa.

Family

Son of William Pratt and Edith May (McConkey) Hamp; married Margot Faust, September 29, 1951; children: Julijana, Alexander; grandchildren 4, step-grandchildren 4.

External links

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