Colin Paul Masica (June 13, 1931 – February 23, 2022) was an American linguist who was professor emeritus in th
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
and the Department of Linguistics at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. Besides being a specialist in

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...

, much of his work was on the typological convergence of languages belonging to different linguistic families in the South Asian area and beyond (see below), more broadly on this phenomenon in general, and on possible explanations for it and implications of it in connection with both linguistic and cultural history. At the University of Chicago, he taught Hindi at all levels, and occasionally other South Asian languages, along with North Indian cultural history and literature, for three decades. He published on both Indo-Aryan and

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant ...

. His magna opera are ''Defining a Linguistic Area: South Asia'' and ''The Indo-Aryan Languages''. The latter surveyed more than a century of linguistic research on the many Indo-Aryan languages and dialects of

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

, and Sri Lanka. It was written as part of the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

's surveys of the language families of the world. The former has had a profound influence on the study of India as a linguistic area. In his seminal ''Defining a Linguistic Area: South Asia and other writings'', Masica drew on studies and grammars of both South Asian and non-South Asian languages by various European (especially Russian), British, American, Indian and other Asian scholars, to demonstrate the typological parallels among the Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Munda,

Tibeto-Burman languages The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people sp ...

of South Asia and with the

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

and

Altaic languages Altaic (; also called Transeurasian) is a controversial proposed language family that would include the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families and possibly also the Japonic and Koreanic languages. Speakers of these languages are ...

(including

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

) of Central and Northeast Asia, in comparison with types prevalent beyond this zone. Masica was born in

Wahpeton, North Dakota Wahpeton ( ) is a city in Richland County, in southeast North Dakota along the Bois de Sioux River at its confluence with the Otter Tail River, which forms the Red River of the North. Wahpeton is the county seat of Richland County. The populati ...

. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. Masica went to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

and to

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. After retiring, he lived in

Boscobel, Wisconsin Boscobel is a city in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,286 at the 2020 census. Approximately 0.6 mi. (1 km) to the north of the city, across a riparian swamp, is the Wisconsin River. U.S. Route 61 crosse ...

, where he owned a farm. He died in

Fennimore, Wisconsin Fennimore is a city in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,497 at the 2010 census. The city's area was separated from the Town of Fennimore, which remains as an adjacent rural area. History Fennimore was named for a sett ...

, on February 23, 2022, at the age of 90.

Publications

*Masica, Colin: "Postverbal subjects in Telugu and other languages", pages 246–73 in *Masica, Colin: "The definition and significance of linguistic areas", pages 205–67 in *Masica, Colin: Alternative embedding strategy in Gujarati. In P. J. Mistry and Bharati Modi, Eds. ''Vidyopāsanā: Studies in honor of Harivallabh C. Bhayāni''. Mumbai-Ahmedabad: Image Publications. 1999. pp. 135–56. * *Masica, Colin: Definiteness marking in South Asian languages. In Krishnamurti, B., Colin P. Masica, Anjani K. Sinha. ''South Asian Languages: Structure, Convergence and Diglossia'' Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. 1986. pp. 123–46. *Masica, Colin: Aryan and Non-Aryan elements in North Indian agriculture. In Deshpande, M. M., and P. E. Hook, Eds. ''Aryan and Non-Aryan in India''. Ann Arbor: Karoma. 1979. pp. 55–151. * *

References

External links

University of Chicago, Department of Linguistics, Faculty Emeritus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Masica, Colin 1931 births 2022 deaths Dravidologists Linguists of Indo-Aryan languages People from Wahpeton, North Dakota People from Boscobel, Wisconsin Military personnel from North Dakota University of Chicago faculty University of Minnesota alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni