Henri Wittmann (born 1937) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

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 ...

from

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. He is best known for his work on

Quebec French Quebec French ( ), also known as Québécois French, is the predominant variety (linguistics), variety of the French language spoken in Canada. It is the dominant language of the province of Quebec, used in everyday communication, in education, ...

Biography

Henri (Hirsch) Wittmann was born in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

in 1937. After studying with

André Martinet André Martinet (; 12 April 1908 – 16 July 1999) was a French linguist, influential due to his work on structural linguistics. In linguistic theory, Martinet is known especially for his studies on linguistic economy and double articulation. ...

at the Sorbonne, he moved to North America and taught successively at the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

, the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

in Edmonton, the

University of Windsor The University of Windsor (UWindsor, U of W, or UWin) is a public university, public research university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's southernmost university. It has approximately 17,500 students. The university was incorporated by ...

and

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

before teaching in the French university system of

, the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and at

Rimouski Rimouski ( ; ) is a city in Quebec, Canada. Rimouski is located in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, at the mouth of the Rimouski River. It has a population of 48,935 (as of 2021). Rimouski, whose motto is ''Legi patrum fidelis'' (Faithful to ...

as well as the

Université de Sherbrooke The Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS; Quebec English, English: ''University of Sherbrooke'') is a French-language Public university, public research university in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, with a second campus in Longueuil, a suburb on the Mont ...

. He retired from teaching in 1997, after an extensive tour of teaching and conferencing in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. In the following years, he became the first Director of the Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivières and emeritus researcher at the Centre d’Analyse des Littératures Francophones des Amériques (CALIFA) at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. As a comparatist, Wittmann contributed to the study of the

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

of a number of languages and language families: Pre-Indo-European,

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

( Hittite, Italic, Romance, Germanic, Creole),

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

(

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

), African ( Mande, Kwa, Bantu), Austronesian ( Malagasy, Polynesian),

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

(

Arawakan Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient Indigenous peoples in South America. Branch ...

, Cariban). His work between 1963 and 2002 includes more than 140 items. He is a life member since 1962 of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

(LSA). In 1965, he cofounded with André Rigault and Douglas Ellis the Linguistics Department at McGill University. In 1981, he was the cofounder, with Normand Beauchemin and Robert Fournier, of the Linguistic Society of Quebec ( Association québécoise de linguistique) which he served for 10 years as president, secretary general and organizer of the annual meeting. In 1981 as well, he became the first Editor of the Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée, a responsibility he assumed for the following 20 years. Politically, Wittmann is known for his

anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade unions as both ...

sympathies with strong links to the CNTU ( Confederation of National Trade Unions), communautary and anti-war movements. In 1974-1978, he was at the center of a union conflict at the University of Quebec which changed the landscape of collective bargaining in the academic world. A specialist of the linguistic heritage of Quebec, he also is a stout defender of Quebec independence.

Contributions to linguistics

Henri Wittmann is the first modern linguist to study non-standard forms of

(notably Joual, Magoua and Chaouin) in a theory-orientated and

comparative The degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs are the various forms taken by adjectives and adverbs when used to compare two entities (comparative degree), three or more entities (superlative degree), or when not comparing entities (positi ...

framework. In a general way, Wittmann, a student of

in the fifties,François Lo Jacomo (1985), ''Annuaire SILF'', Paris: Société internationale de linguistique fonctionnelle, page 68. has been the first to apply the latter's principles of

chain reaction A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events. Chain reactions are one way that sys ...

s in

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

to inflectional

. In Wittmann's view, the basic structure of the sentence is held together by functional items, with the lexical items filling in the blanks.

References

Selected bibliography

* 1973. "Le joual, c'est-tu un créole?" ''La Linguistique'' 9:2.83-9

* 1973. "The lexicostatistical classification of the French-based Creole languages." ''Lexicostatistics in genetic linguistics: Proceedings of the Yale conference'', April 3–4, 1971, dir. Isidore Dyen, 89-99. La Haye: Mouto

* 1974. "Le projet du français parlé à Trois-Rivières I" ''Annales de l'Association canadienne-française pour l'avancement des sciences'' 41:3.165-74. (With Jean-Pierre Tusseau

* 1976. "Contraintes linguistiques et sociales dans la troncation du /l/ à Trois-Rivières." ''Cahiers de linguistique'' 6.13-22. Montréal: Presses de l'Université du Québe

* 1981. "Bom Sadek i bez li: la particule i en français." ''Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée'' 1.177-9

* 1982. "L'agglutination nominale en français colonial." ''Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée'' 2:2.185-20

* 1983, "Les réactions en chaîne en morphologie diachronique." ''Actes du 10e Colloque de la Société internationale de linguistique fonctionnelle'', Université Laval, 9-11 mai. Québec: Presses de l'université Laval, pp. 285-29

* 1983. "Le créole, c'est du français, coudon." ''Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée'' 3:2.187-20

* 1987. "Relexification phylogénétique et structure de C" en créole haïtien et en fon." ''Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée'' 6:2.127-3

* 1987. "Interprétation diachronique de la morphologie verbale du créole réunionnais." ''Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée'' 6:2.137-5

* 1990. "Morphologie et syntaxe des syntagmes �when créole haïtien et en fon." ''Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Congress of Linguists : Berlin/GDR, August 10-August 15, 1987''. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, vol. 1, pp. 644-64

* 1994. "Relexification et créologenèse." ''Actes du Congrès international des linguistes'' 15:4.335-38. Québec: Presses de l'Université Lava

* 1994. "Le créole haïtien, langue kwa relexifiée: vérification d'une hypothèse 'P&P' ou élaboration d'astuces computationnelles?" ''Créolistique et grammaire générative'', edited by Louis-Jean Calvet, 115-39. Paris: Sorbonne, Laboratoire de sociolinguistique (Plurilinguismes 8

* 1995. "Grammaire comparée des variétés coloniales du français populaire de Paris du 17e siècle et origines du français québécois." "Le français des Amériques", edited by Robert Fournier & Henri Wittmann, 281-334. Trois-Rivières: Presses universitaires de Trois-Rivière

* 1995. "La structure de base de la syntaxe narrative dans les contes et légendes du créole haïtien." ''Poétiques et imaginaires: francopolyphonie littéraire des Amériques'', edited by Pierre Laurette & Hans-George Ruprecht, 207-18. Paris: L'Harmatta

* 1996. "La forme phonologique comparée du parler magoua de la région de Trois-Rivières." ''Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée'' 13.225-4

*1996. "L'Ouest français dans le français des Amériques: le jeu des isoglosses morphologiques et la genèse du dialecte acadien." ''L'Ouest français et la francophonie nord-américaine: actes du Colloque international de la francophonie tenu à Angers du 26 au 29 mai 1994'', edited by Georges Cesbron, 127-36. Angers: Presses de l'Université d'Anger

* 1996. "Contraintes sur la relexification: les limites imposées dans un cadre théorique minimaliste." ''Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée'' 13.245-8

*1998. "Le français de Paris dans le français des Amériques." Proceedings of the International Congress of Linguists 16.0416 (Paris, 20-25 juillet 1997). Oxford: Pergamo

*1998. "Les créolismes syntaxiques du français magoua parlé aux Trois-Rivières." ''Français d'Amérique: variation, créolisation, normalisation'' (Actes du colloque, Université d'Avignon, 8-11 oct.), edited by Patrice Brasseur, 229-48. Avignon: Université d'Avignon, Centre d'études canadienne

* 1999. "Prototype as a typological yardstick to creoleness." The Creolist Archives Papers On-line, Stockholms Universite

* 1999. "Non-existential analogues of the verb to be in West African Languages, in Haitian Creole and in Magoua French." Paper, 9th International Conference on Creoles Studie

*2001. "Lexical diffusion and the glottogenetics of creole French." CreoList debate, parts I-VI, appendixes 1-9. The Linguist List, Eastern Michigan University & Wayne State University. (https://web.archive.org/web/20140511211442/http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/creolist.html

External links

Site honoring Henri Wittmann
: with an extensive bibliography and free access to some of his most important writings.
Archives Henri Wittmann
: selected writings.
Entry in Linguistlist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittmann, Henri 1937 births Living people French emigrants to Quebec Francophone Quebec people University of Paris alumni Linguists from Canada Writers from Quebec