Robert Hale Ives Goddard III (born 1941) is a linguist and a
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
emeritus in the Department of
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
of the
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7. ...
at the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...
. He is widely considered the leading expert on the
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages ( or ; also Algonkian) are a subfamily of indigenous American languages that include most languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically simi ...
and the larger
Algic
The Algic languages (also Algonquian–Wiyot–Yurok or Algonquian–Ritwan) are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian subfamily, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to ...
language family.
Early life and education
Goddard received his B.A. from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...
in 1963 and his Ph.D. from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1969. From 1966–1969 he was a junior fellow of the
Harvard Society of Fellows
The Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginnings of their careers by Harvard University for their potential to advance academic wisdom, upon whom are bestowed distinctive opportunities to foster their individual and intell ...
.
Career
After earning his doctorate, Goddard taught for several years at Harvard as a junior professor.
In 1975, he moved to the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...
. His own field research in linguistics has concentrated on the
Delaware languages
The Delaware languages, also known as the Lenape languages ( del, Lënapei èlixsuwakàn), are Munsee and Unami, two closely related languages of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family. Munsee and Unami, spoken abo ...
and
Meskwaki
The Meskwaki (sometimes spelled Mesquaki), also known by the European exonyms Fox Indians or the Fox, are a Native American people. They have been closely linked to the Sauk people of the same language family. In the Meskwaki language, th ...
(Fox). He is also known for work on the
Algonquian Massachusett language
The Massachusett language is an Algonquian language of the Algic language family, formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is spoken in four communities of Wampanoag people ...
, and the history of the
Cheyenne language
The Cheyenne language (, ) (informal spelling Tsisinstsistots), is the Native American language spoken by the Cheyenne people, predominantly in present-day Montana and Oklahoma, in the United States. It is part of the Algonquian language famil ...
. He has also published on the history of the Arapahoan branch of Algonquian: its two current lines that are extant are
Arapaho
The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...
and
Gros Ventre, spoken by tribal members in the West.
Goddard is a prominent figure in the study of the methodology of historical linguistics. He has played a significant role in critiquing crank historical linguistic work.
He is the linguistic and technical editor of the ''
Handbook of North American Indians
The ''Handbook of North American Indians'' is a series of edited scholarly and reference volumes in Native American studies, published by the Smithsonian Institution beginning in 1978. Planning for the handbook series began in the late 1960s and ...
''.
Awards
* He received the
Kenneth L. Hale Award The Kenneth L. Hale Award, named after Linguistics, linguist Kenneth L. Hale, is an award given to a member of the Linguistic Society of America in order to recognize "scholars who have done outstanding work on the documentation of a particular lang ...
from the
LSA in 2002.
* Goddard and Thomas Love received the Joel Palmer Award in 2005 for their article "Oregon the Beautiful".
Publications
* Kiyana, Alfred. (2022) Masahkamikohkwêwa (Grandmother Earth), Thomason, Lucy G. and Goddard, Ives, editors. Petoskey, Michigan: Mundart Press. ISBN 9798986545004
*
*
References
External links
Ives Goddard homepage National Museum of Natural History
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goddard, Ives
Linguists from the United States
Historical linguists
Harvard College alumni
Harvard University faculty
Living people
1941 births
Smithsonian Institution people
Linguists of Algic languages
Linguists of Muskogean languages
Linguists of Uto-Aztecan languages
20th-century linguists
21st-century linguists
Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America