Jerold Alan Edmondson (Chinese name: 艾杰瑞 Aì Jiéruì, September 30, 1941 – August 27, 2023) was an American linguist. His work spans four subdisciplines: historical and comparative linguistics, East Asian linguistics, field linguistics, and phonetics. He was a leading specialist in Tai–Kadai languages of East Asia, especially the Kam–Sui and Kra branches.

Life and career

Edmondson was born in

Plainfield, Indiana Plainfield is a town in Guilford Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, Guilford, Liberty Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, Liberty, and Washington Township, Hendricks County, Indiana, Washington townships, Hendricks County, Indiana, Hendricks ...

. He earned his PhD in Germanic Languages from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in 1973 and a Habilitation in General Linguistics from

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

in 1979. He was an Assistant Professor of English and General Linguistics at

from 1976 to 1980. He joined the faculty of the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the second oldest university in the University of Texas System and was founded in 1895. It was in the Texas A& ...

in 1981 and went on to attain the rank of Professor, becoming a

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

in 2011. As founding director of the Program in Linguistics from 1991 to 1999, he shepherded its growth into the current Department of Linguistics and TESOL. Edmondson earned many accolades while at UT Arlington, including the Outstanding Research Award, the Distinguished Record of Research Award, the Alicia Wilkerson Smotherman Faculty Award, and induction into the Academy of Distinguished Scholars. In 2012, he established the Jerold A. Edmondson Research Endowment in Linguistics, proceeds of which generate research grants for students at UTA, with a priority given to projects focusing on field linguistics and endangered languages. Edmondson died in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal c ...

, on August 27, 2023, at the age of 81.

Research

Edmondson specialized in researching the Tai–Kadai languages, especially the Kam–Sui and Kra branches. He was one of the researchers who documented the

En language En (autonym: ''aiɲ53'' or ''eɲ33ʔ'', also known as Nùng Vẻn) is a Kra language spoken in Vietnam. Before its discovery in 1998, En language was undistinguished from Nùng, which is a Central Tai language closely related to Zhuang. In the ...

during a linguistic field expedition to northern Vietnam in the late 1990s. In 1996, he received a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

grant to study the minority languages spoken along the Vietnam and China borders. He tracked down two previously undocumented languages, Xa Pho and Nung Ven, in northern Viet Nam. Edmondson has performed field investigations of many Southeast Asian languages such as various

Loloish languages The Loloish languages, also known as Yi (like the Yi people) and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of 50–100 Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of Southwestern China. They are most closely related to Bur ...

, Bai, Kháng, and Pa-Hng, as well as languages spoken on other continents, such as

Triqui The Triqui (, ) or Trique () are an Indigenous people of the western part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, centered in the municipalities of Juxtlahuaca, Putla, and Tlaxiaco. They number around 23,000 according to Ethnologue surveys. The Triq ...

and

Dinka The Dinka people () are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Mangalla-Bor to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out of three provinces that were formerly part of southern ...

Selected publications

*J.A. Edmondson and J.H. Esling. 2006. “The valves of the throat and their functioning in tone, vocal register and stress: laryngoscopic case studies” ''Phonology'' 23(2):157-191. *W.R. Merrifield and J.A.Edmondson. 1999. "Palantla Chinantec: Phonetic experiments on nasalization, stress, and tone," ''International journal of American linguistics'' 65(3): 303-323. * V.L. Nguyen and J.A. Edmondson. 1998. “Tones and voice quality in modern northern Viemamese: Instrumental case studies,” ''

Mon-Khmer Studies ''Mon-Khmer Studies'' was an academic journal that focused on Mon-Khmer languages. It was established in 1964 and ceased publication in 2016. From 1992 onwards, it was published by Mahidol University and SIL International SIL Global (formerl ...

''. *J.A. Edmondson, D.B. Solnit. 1997. ''Comparative Kadai: the Tai branch. ''SIL. *J.A. Edmondson and K.J. Gregerson. 1993. “Western Cham as a register language,” ''Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication, ''No. 24, Tonality in Austronesian Languages, pp. 61–74. *H. Den Besten and J.A. Edmondson. 1983. "The verbal complex in continental West Germanic." ''On the Formal Syntax of the Westgermania.'' John Bejamins. pp. 155–216.

References

External links

Official faculty page of Jerold A. Edmondson

Lesser Known Languages of Northern Vietnam

Audio files from the Lesser Known Languages of Northern Vietnam project

Dr. Jerold Edmondson on little-known languages of Vietnam on NPR's All Things Considered. {{DEFAULTSORT:Edmondson, Jerold A. 1941 births 2023 deaths Linguists from the United States Linguists of Southeast Asian languages Linguists of Kra–Dai languages Linguists of Kra languages Linguists of Hmong–Mien languages University of Texas at Arlington faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni Technische Universität Berlin alumni Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin Linguists of Sino-Tibetan languages Linguists of Loloish languages Linguists of Austroasiatic languages Scientists from Arlington, Texas