Victor Golla (1939–2021) was a linguist who specialized in the indigenous languages of California and Oregon, especially the

Pacific Coast Athabaskan Pacific Coast Athabaskan is a geographical and possibly genealogical grouping of the Athabaskan language family. California Athabaskan * California Athabaskan ** Hupa (dining'-xine:wh, a.k.a. Hoopa-Chilula) *** dialects: **** Hupa **** Tsnu ...

subgroup of the Athabaskan language family and the languages of the region that belong to the

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 ( ...

phylum. He was emeritus professor of anthropology at

Humboldt State University California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt or Humboldt) is a public university in Arcata, California. It is one of Cal Poly (disambiguation), three polytechnic universities in the California State University (CSU) sys ...

and lived in

Trinidad, California Trinidad (Spanish language, Spanish for "Trinity"; Yurok language, Yurok: ''Chuerey'') is a seaside city in Humboldt County, California, Humboldt County, located on the Pacific Ocean north of the Arcata-Eureka Airport and north of the college ...

Life and work

Golla was born in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city in and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay A ...

, and grew up in the small town of Mt. Shasta, in the far north of the state, where his father was a

funeral director A funeral director, also known as an undertaker or mortician (American English), is a professional who has licenses in funeral arranging and embalming (or preparation of the deceased) involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks o ...

and deputy coroner of Siskiyou County. The family moved to the San Francisco Bay area in 1952, and Golla attended high school in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

. He graduated from

UC 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 ...

in 1960 and received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the same institution in 1970. Golla taught briefly at 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 ...

(assistant professor of linguistics, 1966–1967) and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

(instructor in anthropology, 1967–1968), and then settled in Washington, D.C. for two decades, teaching in the anthropology department at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

(1968–1988) and conducting research on the extensive archival documentation of American Indian languages that is housed in the

National Anthropological Archives The National Anthropological Archives is the third largest archive in the Smithsonian Institution and a sister archive to the Human Studies Film Archive. The collection documents the history of anthropology and the world's peoples and cultures, ...

at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

. In 1988, he was invited to join the faculty of

, in

Arcata, California Arcata (; ; ) is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay (United States), Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, 2020 census, Arcata's population was 18,857. A ...

, as professor of Native American Studies and director of the Center for Indian Community Development. In 1981 Golla helped found the

Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) is an international organization founded in 1981 devoted to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous languages of North, Central, and South Ameri ...

(SSILA), and subsequently served for 25 years as the Society's secretary-treasurer and editor of its quarterly ''SSILA Newsletter'' (1982 to 2007). SSILA established the Victor Golla Prize in his honor, to recognize Americanist linguists who show "a significant history of both linguistic scholarship and service to the scholarly community". In addition to his work at Humboldt, Golla held a series of visiting appointments at

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

(professor of anthropology 1996–1997; research associate in anthropology, 1997–2006), and from 2001 co-principal investigator of the J. P. Harrington Database Project. He also served as a linguistic consultant to the

Hoopa Valley Tribe The Hupa (Yurok: / 'Hupa people') are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in northwestern California. Their endonym is for Hupa-language speakers in general, and for residents of Hoopa Valley, also sp ...

, where he was responsible for creating the Hupa Practical Alphabet and a number of pedagogical and reference materials, including an English-Hupa bilingual dictionary (1996a). He was the author of several scholarly books and numerous articles on American Indian languages, including three grammars of Hupa (1970, 1986a, 1996b) and a 1000-page compendium of the Hupa lexical and grammatical materials collected in 1927 by Edward Sapir (Sapir & Golla 2001). His last major publication, ''California Indian Languages'' (2011), was awarded the 2013 Leonard Bloomfield Book Award by 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'', ...

for being the recently published book "which makes the most outstanding contribution to the development of our understanding of language and linguistics". In 2015 Golla was named a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

(AAAS). In selecting Golla, the society cited his "influential research on Native American linguistics and ethnography" and his "outstanding service to the profession." Golla died at his home in

, in April 2021 of advanced

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

and a stroke.

Major publications

*Golla, Victor (1970). ''Hupa Grammar.'' Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. *Golla, Victor (1976). Tututni (Oregon Athapaskan). ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 42:217-227. *Golla, Victor & Shirley Silver, editors (1978). ''Northern California Texts.'' IJAL-Native American Texts Series 2(2). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *Krauss, Michael E. & Victor Golla (1981). Athabaskan Languages of the Subarctic. In ''Handbook of North American Indians,'' volume 6:''Subarctic'' (June Helm, editor), pp. 67–85. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. *Golla, Victor (1984). ''The Sapir-Kroeber Correspondence. Letters Between Edward Sapir and A. L. Kroeber, 1905-1925.'' Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, Report 6. Berkeley: Department of Linguistics, University of California. *Golla, Victor (1986a). ''A Short Practical Grammar of Hupa''. Hoopa: Hupa Language Project, Hoopa Valley Tribe. *Whistler, Kenneth W. & Victor Golla (1986b). Proto-Yokuts Reconsidered. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 52: 317–358 *Golla, Victor (1987). Sapir, Kroeber, and North American Linguistic Classification. In ''New Perspectives on Edward Sapir in Language, Culture and Personality'' (W. Cowan et al., editors), pp. 17–38. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. *Golla, Victor, editor (1994). ''John P. Harrington and His Legacy.'' Special Issue, ''Anthropological Linguistics'' (volume 33.4, March 1984). *Golla, Victor (1996a). ''Hupa Language Dictionary, Second Edition.'' Arcata: Center for Indian Community Development, Humboldt State University and Hoopa Valley Tribe. *Golla, Victor (1996b). Sketch of Hupa, an Athapaskan Language. ''Handbook of North American Indians,'' volume 17, ''Languages'' (Ives Goddard, editor), pp. 364–389. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. *DeLancey, Scott & Victor Golla (1997). Penutian: Retrospect and Prospect. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 63:171-201 *Sapir, Edward & Victor Golla (2001). Hupa Texts, with Notes and Lexicon. In: ''The Collected Works of Edward Sapir,'' volume 14, ''Northwest California Linguistics'' (Victor Golla & Sean O’Neill, editors), pp. 19–1011. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. *Golla, Victor (2003). Ishi's Language. In: ''Ishi in Three Centuries'' (Karl Kroeber & Clifton Kroeber, editors), pp. 208–225. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. *Golla, Victor &

Juliette Blevins Juliette Blevins (; born 1960) is an American linguist whose work has contributed to the fields of phonology, phonetics, historical linguistics, and typology. She is currently professor of linguistics at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Career Ble ...

(2005). A New Mission Indian Manuscript from the San Francisco Bay Area. ''Boletíin, California Mission Studies Association'' 22:33-61. *Golla, Victor (2007a). North America. In: ''Encyclopedia of the World’s Endangered Languages'' (Christopher Moseley, editor), pp. 1–96. London & New York: Routledge. *Golla, Victor (2007b). Linguistic Prehistory. In: ''California Prehistory. Colonization, Culture and Complexity'' (Terry L. Jones & Kathryn A. Klar, editors), pp. 71–82. Lanham (Maryland): Altamira Press. *Golla, Victor, with Lyle Campbell, Ives Goddard & Marianne Mithun (2008). North America. In: ''Atlas of the World’s Languages, second revised edition'' (R.E. Asher & Christopher Moseley, editors). London & New York: Routledge. *Golla, Victor (2011). ''California Indian Languages'' Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golla, Victor 1939 births 2021 deaths University of California, Berkeley alumni Anthropological linguists American anthropologists Linguists from the United States People from Mount Shasta, California People from Trinidad, California Linguists of Na-Dene languages Linguists of Hokan languages Linguists of Penutian languages Historical linguists