Robert Lawrence Trask (10 November 1944 – 27 March 2004) was an American–British professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex, and an authority on the Basque language and the field of historical linguistics.

Biography

Born in

Olean, New York Olean ( ) is a city in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County and serves as its financial, business, transportation and entertainment center. It is one of the principal cities of the Southern ...

, he initially studied

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

in his home country, but after a brief stint in the Peace Corps he took an interest in linguistics. He received his doctorate in linguistics from the University of London, and thereafter taught at various universities in the United Kingdom. He became a professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex. He was considered an authority on the Basque language: his book ''The History of Basque'' (1997) is an essential reference on diachronic Basque linguistics and probably the best introduction to Basque linguistics as a whole. He was at work compiling an etymological dictionary of that language when he died; the unfinished work was posthumously published on the Internet by Max W. Wheeler. He was also an authority on historical linguistics, and had written about the problem of the

origin of language The origin of language (spoken and signed, as well as language-related technological systems such as writing), its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries. Scholars wishing to study th ...

. He also published two introductory books to linguistics: ''Language: The basics'' (1995) and ''Introducing Linguistics'' (coauthored with Bill Mayblin) (2000), and several dictionaries on different topics of this science: ''A dictionary of grammatical terms in linguistics'' (1993), ''A dictionary of phonetics and phonology'' (1996), ''A student's dictionary of language and linguistics'' (1997), ''Key concepts in language and linguistics'' (1999), ''The dictionary of historical and comparative linguistics'' (2000) and ''The Penguin dictionary of English grammar'' (2000). Other of his books include: * ''Language Change'' (1994) * ''Historical Linguistics'' (1996), * ''The Penguin Guide to Punctuation'' (1997) * ''The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar'' (2000), * ''Time Depth in Historical Linguistics'' (co-editor) (2000), * ''Mind the Gaffe'' (2001), * ''How to Write Effective Emails'' (2005),

References

External links

The Larry Trask Archive

with '' The Guardian''
Contributions
t
Ask-a-Linguist
* ttp://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/ Larry Trask's Guide to Punctuation* Obituaries *
The Guardian
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University of Sussex Newsletter (includes a photograph)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trask, Larry 1944 births 2004 deaths Academics of the University of Sussex Alumni of the University of London Basque-language scholars Neurological disease deaths in England Deaths from motor neuron disease Historical linguists Linguists from the United States People from New York (state) 20th-century linguists