Mary Haas
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Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) 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 ...
who specialized in North American indigenous languages, Thai, and
historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also known as diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical li ...
. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was elected a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
and a member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
.


Early life and education

Haas was born in
Richmond, Indiana Richmond () is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana, United States. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 35,720. It is the principal c ...
. She attended
high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
and Earlham College in Richmond. She completed her
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
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 ...
at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in 1935 at the age of 25, with a dissertation titled ''A Grammar of the Tunica Language''. In the 1930s, Haas worked with the last native speaker of Tunica, Sesostrie Youchigant, producing extensive texts and vocabularies.


Career and research


Early work in linguistics

Haas undertook graduate work on comparative philology 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 ...
. She studied under
Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States ...
, whom she later followed to
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
. She began a long career in linguistic fieldwork by studying various languages during the summer months. Over the ten-year period from 1931 to 1941, Haas studied the Wakashan language Nitinat (
Ditidaht The Ditidaht ee-tee-dotFirst Nation is a First Nations in Canada, First Nations band government on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government has 17 reserve lands: Ahuk, Tsuquanah, Wyah, Clo-oose, Cheewat, Sarque, ...
), as well as a number of languages that were mainly originally spoken in the American Southeast: Tunica, Natchez, Creek, Koasati,
Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...
,
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
,
Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
and Hichiti. Her first published paper, ''A Visit to the Other World, a Nitinat Text'', written in collaboration with Morris Swadesh, was published in 1933. Shortly after, Haas conducted fieldwork with Watt Sam and Nancy Raven, the last two native speakers of the Natchez language in
Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
. Her extensive unpublished field notes have constituted the most reliable source of information on the now dead language. She conducted extensive fieldwork on the
Creek language The Muscogee language (also Muskogee , ), previously referred to by its exonym, Creek, is spoken by Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole people, primarily in the US states of Oklahoma and Florida. Muscogee was historically spoken by various constitu ...
, and was the first modern linguist to collect extensive texts in the language. Her Creek texts were published after her death in a volume that was edited and translated by Jack B. Martin, Margaret McKane Mauldin, and Juanita McGirt.


Career at the University of California-Berkeley

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the United States government viewed the study and teaching of Southeast Asian languages as important to the war effort, and under the auspices of the
Army Specialized Training Program The Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) was a military training program instituted by the United States Army during World War II to meet wartime demands both for junior officers and soldiers with technical skills. Conducted at 227 American u ...
at 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 ...
, Haas developed a program to teach the
Thai language Thai,In or Central Thai (historically Siamese;Although "Thai" and "Central Thai" have become more common, the older term, "Siamese", is still used by linguists, especially when it is being distinguished from other Tai languages (Diller 2008:6 ...
. Her authoritative ''Thai-English Students' Dictionary'', published in 1964, is still in use. In 1948, she was appointed assistant professor of Thai and Linguistics at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
Department of Oriental Languages, an appointment she attributed to Peter A. Boodberg, whom she described as "ahead of his time in the way he treated women scholars—a scholar was a scholar in his book". She became one of the founding members of the UC-Berkeley Department of Linguistics when it was established in 1953. She was a long-term chair of the department, and she was Director of the Survey of California Indian Languages at Berkeley from 1953 to 1977. She retired from Berkeley in 1977 and in 1984 was elected a Berkeley Fellow. Mary Haas died at her home in Berkeley, California, on May 17, 1996, at the age of 86.


Role in teaching

Haas was noted for her dedication to teaching linguistics, and to the role of the linguist in language instruction. Her student Karl V. Teeter pointed out in his obituary of Haas that she trained more Americanist linguists than her former instructors
Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States ...
and
Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...
combined: she supervised fieldwork in Americanist linguistics by more than 100 doctoral students. As a founder and director of the Survey of California Indian Languages, she advised nearly fifty dissertations, including those of many linguists who were later influential in the field, including William Bright ( Karok),
William Shipley William Shipley (baptised: 2 June 1715 – 28 December 1803) was an English drawing master, social reformer and inventor who, in 1754, founded Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, an arts society in London that be ...
(
Maidu The Maidu are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather River, Feather and American River, American ...
), Robert Oswalt ( Kashaya), Karl Teeter (
Wiyot The Wiyot ( Wiyot: Wíyot, Chetco-Tolowa: Wee-'at xee-she or Wee-yan' Xee-she', Euchre Creek Tututni: Wii-yat-dv-ne – "Mad River People", Yurok: Weyet) are an indigenous people of California living near Humboldt Bay, California and a small ...
), Catherine Callaghan (
Penutian Penutian is a proposed grouping of language family, language families that includes many Native Americans in the United States, Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington ( ...
), Margaret Langdon ( Diegueño), Sally McLendon (Eastern Pomo), Victor Golla ( Hupa), Marc Okrand ( Mutsun), Kenneth Whistler ( Proto-Wintun), Douglas Parks (
Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...
and
Arikara The Arikara ( ), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011) ...
), and William Jacobsen ( Washo).


Personal life

She married Morris Swadesh, a fellow linguist, in 1931. They divorced in 1937.


Awards and honors

In 1963, Haas served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...
in 1964. She was elected a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
in 1974, and she was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 1978. She received
honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
s from
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
in 1975, 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 ...
in 1976, Earlham College, 1980, and the
Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
in 1980.


Notable students

Haas trained many notable linguists, including the following: *
James Matisoff James Alan Matisoff ( zh, , t=馬蒂索夫, s=马蒂索夫, p=Mǎdìsuǒfū or zh, , t=馬提索夫, s=马提索夫, p=Mǎtísuǒfū; born July 14, 1937) is an American linguist. He is a professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of Cal ...
* Margaret Langdon *
Terrence Kaufman Terrence Kaufman (1937 – March 3, 2022) was an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, lexicography, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He was an emeritus professor of linguistic ...
* Anthony C. Woodbury * William O. Bright * William A. Foley * John W. Du Bois * Wick R. Miller * William F. Shipley * Karl V. Teeter * William C. Sturtevant * Marc Okrand


Selected publications

* ''The Thai system of writing'', 1943. American Council of Learned Societies. * ''Spoken Thai'', 1945 o-authored with Heng R. Subhanka Linguistic Society of America. * ''Thai reader'', 1945, Berkeley. * ''Tunica texts'', 1950. University of California publications in linguistics, 6.1. Berkeley: University of California Press. 173pp. * ''Thai vocabulary'', 1955. American Council of Learned Societies. * ''The prehistory of languages'', 1960. Mouton. eprint 2018 * ''Thai-English student's dictionary'', 1964. Stanford University Press. * ''Language, culture, and history : essays'', 1978. Stanford University Press. * ''Creek (Muskogee) texts'', 2015. o-authored with James H. Hill University of California Press.


References


External links


Mary Haas Papers
at the American Philosophical Society



at Sealang Library
Concise
Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
entry
Interview
recorded on September 30, 1984 (University of Florida Digital Collections) {{DEFAULTSORT:Haas, Mary 1910 births 1996 deaths People from Richmond, Indiana American women linguists Historical linguists University of California, Berkeley faculty Yale University alumni University of Chicago alumni Earlham College alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Women lexicographers 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American scientists Linguists of Algic languages Linguists of Siouan languages Linguists of Muskogean languages Linguists of Thai Linguists of Wakashan languages Linguistic Society of America presidents American women non-fiction writers 20th-century American lexicographers