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, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, 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 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...

, 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 are a language family, family of languages spoken by 250 million people, primarily in South India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan, with pockets elsewhere in South Asia. The most commonly spoken Dravidian l ...

. 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 geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. It was written as part of the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

'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 A sprachbund (, from , 'language federation'), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. The ...

. 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 spe ...

of South Asia and with the

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

and

Altaic languages The Altaic () languages are a group of languages comprising the Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic and Tungusic languages, Tungusic language families, with some linguists including the Koreanic languages, Koreanic and Japon ...

(including

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

and Japanese) 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 populat ...

. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

. Masica went to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

and to

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. After retiring, he lived in Boscobel, Wisconsin, where he owned a farm. He died in Fennimore, Wisconsin, 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