Albert Richard Diebold Jr. (January 20, 1934 - 1 March 2014) was an American linguistic anthropologist who was Professor of Anthropology at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. He specialized in

Indo-European studies Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical pro ...

Biography

Albert Richard Diebold Jr. was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, New York on January 20, 1934, the son of Albert Richard Diebold and Dorothy Orizondo. He was educated at Buckley School and Hotchkiss School. He enrolled at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 1956, receiving his PhD in 1962. He was subsequently a researcher and professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and Stanford University. Diebold joined the

in 1974, where he retired as Professor Emeritus of Anthropology in 1992. Diebold was a linguistic anthropologist who specialized in comparative and historical

, theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics and transcultural psychiatry. He was known as a world-class expert on the

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

. His ''The Evolution of Indo-European Nomenclature for Salmonid Fish'' (1985) is credited with having solved the salmon problem and having firmly shown that the linguistic evidence supports the

Kurgan hypothesis The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory, Kurgan model, or steppe theory) is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out throughout Europe and par ...

, which argues in favor of a

Proto-Indo-European homeland The Proto-Indo-European homeland (or Indo-European homeland) was the prehistoric linguistic homeland of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). From this region, its speakers migrated east and west, and went on to form the proto-communities o ...

located on the

Pontic–Caspian steppe The Pontic–Caspian steppe, formed by the Caspian steppe and the Pontic steppe, is the steppeland stretching from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the Pontus Euxinus of antiquity) to the northern area around the Caspian Sea. It extend ...

. Together with

Edgar C. Polomé Edgar Ghislain Charles Polomé (July 31, 1920March 11, 2000) was a Belgian-born American philologist and religious studies scholar. He specialized in Germanic and Indo-European studies and was active at the University of Texas at Austin for mu ...

, Diebold co-edited the

Journal of Indo-European Studies The ''Journal of Indo-European Studies'' (JIES) is a peer-reviewed academic journal of Indo-European studies. The journal publishes papers in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, mythology and linguistics relating to the cultural history of ...

Monograph Series, which has published more than 34 monographs. Polomé was friend of J. P. Mallory, who would eventually assume many of his duties at the journal. Diebold was deeply interested in research on

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica ...

n ethnic groups, particularly the

Huave people The Huave (also spelled Huavi or Wabi) are an indigenous people of Mexico. The autodenomination term used by the Huave themselves is ''Ikoots'' or ''Kunajts'' (the first-person inclusive pronoun, thus meaning "Us"), or ''Mareños'' (meaning "Sea Pe ...

, and contributed greatly to the survival of that people. Diebold founded and directed the Salus Mundi Foundation, which funded research on Indo-European studies. Diebold was a great fan of the

Middle-earth Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the '' Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is ...

legendarium of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

. Diebold died in

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

, Arizona on March 1, 2014. He was survived by a daughter and a grandson. The

Diebold Professor of Comparative Philology The position of Diebold Professor of Comparative Philology (designated the Professor of Comparative Philology 1868–82 and 1925–2003, and known as the Corpus Christi Professor of Comparative Philology 1882–1925) is a professorship in comparat ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

is named after him.

Selected works

* ''The Evolution of Indo-European Nomenclature for Salmonid Fish'', 1985 * ''Introduction to a Dictionary of Some Languages and Dialects of Afghanistan'', 2004

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

A. Richard Diebold Jr.
at Find a Grave
A. Richard Diebold Jr.
at

Legacy.com Legacy.com is a United States-based website founded in 1998, the world's largest commercial provider of online memorials. The Web site hosts obituaries and memorials for more than 70 percent of all U.S. deaths.Keagle, Lauri Harvey"Death in the D ...

1934 births 2014 deaths American anthropologists Anthropological linguists Harvard University faculty Indo-Europeanists Linguists of Indo-European languages Stanford University faculty Yale University alumni University of Arizona faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty {{Anthropologist-stub

Biography

Selected works

See also

References

Sources

External links