Carl Gustav Arvid Olof Croneberg (26 April 1930 – 7 August 2022) was a

Swedish-American Swedish Americans () are Americans of Swedish descent. The history of Swedish Americans dates back to the early colonial times, with notable migration waves occurring in the 19th and early 20th centuries and approximately 1.2 million arrivi ...

Deaf

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

known for his work on

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...

(ASL).

Early life and education

Croneberg was born in 1930 in Norrbärke, near Stockholm. He lost his hearing at the age of 10 and was subsequently sent to a Deaf institution where he was educated in Swedish Sign Language. In 1951 he was recruited by

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered university in Washington, D.C., for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first school ...

president Leonard M. Elstad to enroll at the university. He graduated in 1955 with a bachelor's degree in English.

Career

In 1958, Croneberg was recruited by William C. Stokoe to work in a research laboratory for a linguistic analysis of the language of signs. Alongside researchers William C. Stokoe and Dorothy S. Casterline, he noticed that ASL has a linguistic system (phonology, morphology, syntax). They recognized ASL as a natural language with its own rules of grammar and syntax. Later, he was a co-writer of '' A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles'', with Stokoe and Casterline. In the book, Croneberg gave an early ethnographic and sociological portrait on the Deaf community and its regional dialects.Hochgesang, J. A., & Miller, M. T. (2016). A celebration of the Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles: Fifty years later. '' Sign Language Studies Journal'', 16(4). Croneberg was one of the first sociologists to use the term "culture" to describe signing deaf Americans' way of life, and was the first to discuss the differences between Black ASL and white ASL. The term was first written in uppercase as "Deaf culture" in 1975. The work on

Deaf Culture Deaf culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as ...

and Black American Sign Language continues. Croneberg knew four languages: Swedish, German, English and ASL. He taught in the English department at Gallaudet University for 30 years until his retirement in 1986. On 13 May 2022, Croneberg was awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Gallaudet University for his pioneer work in American Sign Language research.

Personal life and death

Croneberg was married to the former Eleanor Wetzel, and had two daughters and a son. He died on 7 August 2022, at the age of 92.

Publications

*Stokoe, William C.; Dorothy C. Casterline; Carl G. Croneberg. 1965. ''A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles''. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet College Press

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Croneberg, Carl G. 1930 births 2022 deaths Deaf culture Gallaudet University faculty Linguists from Sweden Linguists from the United States Naturalized citizens of the United States Place of death missing Swedish emigrants to the United States Swedish deaf people American scientists with disabilities Deaf scholars and academics Gallaudet University alumni People from Smedjebacken Municipality