Hans Kurath

Hans Kurath (13 December 1891–2 January 1992) was an American linguist of Austrian origin. He was full professor for English and Linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is predominantly known for publishing the first linguistic atlas of the US ("Linguistic Atlas of New England", for which he received the Loubat Prize) and for being the first main editor of the "Middle English Dictionary". Together with Raven I. McDavid, Jr. he also published a linguistic atlas of the eastern United States, "The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States".

Life

Kurath was born in Villach, Austria, and emigrated to the US in 1907 and became a US citizen in 1912. He studied at the universities of Texas and Chicago. He did his Ph.D. in 1920. Afterwards he was professor for German at Northwestern University (1920-1927), then professor for German and Linguistics at the Ohio State University (1927-1931) and Brown University (1931-1946). In 1929 he initiated the American Linguistic Atlas Project. In 1946, finally, he became Full Professor for English and Linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1946-1962). In 1941 he was president of the Linguistic Society of America. In 1959 he received an honorary doctor's degree from the University of Chicago.

He died in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the age of 100.

Fields of interest

* Lexicography
* Dialectology
* Middle English
* American English

Important publications

*"Linguistic Atlas of New England", 3 vols., New York 1939–43
*"Handbook of the Linguistic Geography of New England", Providence 1939
*"A Word Geography of the Eastern United States", Ann Arbor 1949
*main editor of the first volumes of the "Middle English Dictionary", from 1946 through 1962, Ann Arbor.
*"The Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States" (together with Raven I. McDavid, Jr.), Ann Arbor 1961

References

*Bailey, Richard W. (1992), “Hans Kurath”, "Language" 68: 797-808.
* [http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/17 Brown, Nina: "Hans Kurath: Linguistic Atlas of the United States", Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science.]
*Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. Hans Kurath
*Schneider, Edgar (1992): "In memoriam Hans Kurath". "English World-Wide" 13: 111 – 113.
*Stammerjohann, Harro et al. (eds.) (1996), "Lexicon grammaticorum: Who's Who in the History of World Linguistics", Tübingen: Niemeyer, s.v. Kurath, Hans.

External links

* [http://hyde.park.uga.edu Linguistic Atlas Project]

Persondata
NAME = Kurath, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = American linguist
DATE OF BIRTH = 1891-12-13
PLACE OF BIRTH = Villach, Austria
DATE OF DEATH = 1992-01-02
PLACE OF DEATH = Ann Arbor, Michigan