History of Athabaskan Language Studies
The history of Athabaskan language studies contains some interesting episodes. Krauss (2005) offers some humorous side notes on the work of Edward Sapir and his students in the early reconstruction Proto-Athabaskan. He presents some scandalous events, such as the reason why Gladys Reichard was not particularly positive about Sapir’s work: “it was in fact common knowledge in some circles that she was shacked up, living in sin, in Greenwich Village for years with none other than P.E. Goddard” (p. 63), with whom Sapir had “strange and strained relations” (p. 64). The same situation probably deprived later linguists of P.E. Goddard’s monumental comparative Athabaskan dictionary which is now lost: “Goddard’s wife naturally evinced some displeasure, which may well explain why the whereabouts of the Goddard papers, including his life’s work, the comparative dictionary of Athabaskan, have been unknown since his death” (id.).
Read more about this topic: Athabaskan Languages
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history, language and/or studies:
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The history of our era is the nauseating and repulsive history of the crucifixion of the procreative body for the glorification of the spirit.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“He had not failed to observe how harmoniously gigantic language and a microscopic topic go together.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Possibly the Creator did not make the world chiefly for the purpose of providing studies for gifted novelists; but if he had done so, we can scarcely imagine that He could have offered anything much better in the way of material ...”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)