Karl van Duyn Teeter (March 2, 1929 – April 20, 2007) was an American

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 especially for his work on the

Algic languages The Algic languages (also Algonquian–Wiyot–Yurok or Algonquian–Ritwan) are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian subfamily, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to ...

Life and work

Teeter was born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, to Charles Edwin Teeter Jr., a college professor of physical chemistry, and Lura May (née Shaffner) Teeter, later in life a college professor in philosophy. Raised in

Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by ...

, he dropped out of high school and joined 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 ...

, where he served as a Supply Sergeant from 1951 to 1954. In 1951, Teeter married Anita Maria Bonacorsi, the daughter of Sicilian immigrants. Sent to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

to serve in the occupation forces, he became deeply interested in the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

and on returning received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in Oriental Languages from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

. There he continued his studies as a graduate student in

linguistics 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 ...

. His dissertation, supervised by

Mary Haas Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American indigenous languages, Thai, and historical linguistics. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was el ...

, was a description of the soon-to-be-extinct

Wiyot language Wiyot (also Wishosk) or (lit. 'your jaw') is an Algic languageCampbell, Lyle (1997), p. 152 spoken by the Wiyot people of Humboldt Bay, California. The language's last native speaker, Della Prince, died in 1962. Classification Wiyot, a ...

. Teeter's work on Wiyot not only provided the last and best data for this language, but set the stage for the resolution of the Ritwan controversy. Teeter not only provided crucial data, but recognized many of the correspondences with Algonquian cited by Mary Haas. He later contributed some of the grammatical arguments which, along with those made by his student

Ives Goddard Robert Hale Ives Goddard III (born 1941) is a linguist and a curator emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. He is widely considered the leading expert on the Algonqui ...

, finally settled the question. With field work on Wiyot no longer possible, Teeter turned his attention to Malecite-Passamaquoddy, a distantly related Algonquian language of

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

and

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. His work on this language stimulated that of Philip LeSourd. After a term from 1959 to 1962 as

Junior Fellow The Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginnings of their careers by Harvard University for their potential to advance academic wisdom, upon whom are bestowed distinctive opportunities to foster their individual and intellect ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, Teeter was appointed assistant professor of linguistics. He remained at Harvard for the remainder of his career, eventually retiring in 1989 as Professor of Linguistics. In 1968, he signed the "

Writers and Editors War Tax Protest Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse o ...

" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War."Writers and Editors War Tax Protest", January 30, 1968, ''New York Post'' He continued to work far into his retirement, concentrating on completing the lexicon of Wiyot on which he had been working since his student days, and encouraging research on

endangered languages An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a " dead langua ...

through participation in such organizations as the

Foundation for Endangered Languages Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

References

External links

Linguist List obituaryBoston Globe obituary

Bibliography

*''The Wiyot Language'' (University of California Press Publications in Linguistics 37, 1964) *''Descriptive linguistics in America: Triviality vs. irrelevance'', (Word 20.197-206, 1964) *''Wiyot Handbook'' (Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics Memoirs 10 and 11, 1993) {{DEFAULTSORT:Teeter, Karl V. American tax resisters United States Army soldiers University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard University faculty 1929 births 2007 deaths Linguists of Algic languages Linguists of Wiyot 20th-century American linguists Linguists of Japanese

Life and work

See also

References

External links

Bibliography