Brent Douglas Galloway (8 April 1944 – 6 August 2014) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

noted for his work with endangered

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

languages, specializing in several of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. He completed his degrees through a doctorate in linguistics in 1977 at the

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 ...

, undertaking extensive fieldwork in that period.

Early life, education and career

Galloway was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, and received his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

, C.Phil., and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

at the

, in 1965, 1971, and 1977, respectively. He conducted linguistic field work with the

Haisla language The Haisla language, ''X̄a'islak̓ala'' or ''X̌àh̓isl̩ak̓ala'', is a First Nations language spoken by the Haisla people of the North Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, who are based in the village of Kitamaat. This is ...

, Upriver Halkomelem (from 1970), and

Nooksack Nooksack ( Nooksack: ''Noxwsʼáʔaq'') or Nootsack may refer to: *Nooksack people, an American Indian tribe in Whatcom County, Washington **Nooksack language, the language of this tribe Places *Nooksack River, a river in Whatcom County, Washingto ...

(from 1974). In the case of Nooksack and Samish (see below), he worked with the last known surviving fluent speakers. (Since 2002 one person has become a fluent speaker of Nooksack, and there may be 3 or 4 descendants who speak Samish).

Career

From 1975 and 1980 Galloway founded and headed the Halkomelem Language Program at the Coqualeetza Education Training Centre in

Sardis, British Columbia Sardis is a small community on the south side of Chilliwack, about from downtown, in the Fraser River Valley. Sardis is the urban core of the south side of Chilliwack and a popular shopping destination. History A.C. Wells, Adam Vedder and ...

. He developed the Stó:lō Halkomelem

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...

, which was subsequently adopted officially and is now in wide use throughout the

Fraser Valley The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from the ...

. He also compiled the first grammar of Upriver Halkomelem, published in 1977, plus treatises on the region's

ethnobotany Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for m ...

and

ethnozoology Ethnozoology is the study of the past and present interrelationships between human cultures and the animals in their environment. It includes classification and naming of zoological forms, cultural knowledge and use of wild and domestic animals. ...

. According to Galloway, some words in Halkomelem "encapsulate the whole knowledge of the culture." The language has a rich

oral literature Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...

which shows a whole way of looking at the universe that is different from that of English or other European languages. From 1984, he worked on the

Samish The Samish are a Native American people who live in the U.S. state of Washington. They are a Central Coast Salish people. Through the years, they were assigned to reservations dominated by other Tribes, for instance, the Swinomish Indians of the ...

dialect of

Northern Straits Salish North Straits Salish is a Salish language which includes the dialects of *Lummi (also known as W̱lemi,Ćosen, Xwlemiʼchosen, xʷləmiʔčósən) ''(†)'' * Saanich (also known as Senćoten, sənčáθən, sénəčqən) *Samish (also known as ...

. In 1988 Galloway joined the

Saskatchewan Indian Federated College The First Nations University of Canada (abbreviated as FNUniv) is a post-secondary institution and federated college of the University of Regina, based in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. FNUniv operates three campuses within the province, i ...

's Department of Indian Languages, Literatures, & Linguistics and served as its head from 1988 to 1994. He continued to work extensively with Halkomelem and Nooksack language education. In 1994 he also began to work on the

Gullah language Gullah (also called Gullah-English, Sea Island Creole English, and Geechee) is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" within the community), an African-American population living in coastal regions of South Caro ...

of the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country.

Works

Galloway compiled elements of a dictionary for Samish, "A Phonology, Morphology, and Classified Word List for the Samish Dialect of Straits Salish (1990 National Museum of Civilization, Canadian Ethnology Service, Mercury Series Paper #116), *(co-authored with

Virginia Mixson Geraty Virginia Mixson Geraty (1915–2004) was an American writer, librarian, and outspoken defender of the Gullah language. She authored poetry and books in the Gullah language and produced popular recordings in Gullah. She was also involved in theate ...

), a dictionary for Gullah (c.1994) (She later independently published ''Gulluh Fuh Oonuh/Gullah for You: A Guide to the Gullah Language (English and Gullah Edition)'' (1998) *Halkomelem: (co-authored with George Adams, a tribal elder and fluent speaker), "Grammatical Sketch and Classified Word List of Upriver Halkomelem" (1980, Coqualeetza Education Training Centre) *"Classified Word List of the Nooksack Language", 2008 *''Dictionary of Upriver

Halkomelem Halkomelem (; in the Upriver dialect, in the Island dialect, and in the Downriver dialect) is a language of various First Nations peoples of the British Columbia Coast. It is spoken in what is now British Columbia, ranging from southeastern ...

'' (2009), University of California Press, Publications in Linguistics. *''Nooksack Place Names'' (2011, co-authored with Allan Richardson;

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

Press) In addition, he published about 100 descriptive articles and papers on Halkomelem and Nooksack, and several on

Assiniboine The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda ...

and

. As of October 2008 he was working to complete a Nooksack dictionary. His work on these languages was based on original field work and recorded tapes that have been copied to CDs. Galloway also wrote a number of papers and articles on his theory of

cognitive semantics Cognitive semantics is part of the cognitive linguistics movement. Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. Cognitive semantics holds that language is part of a more general human Cognition, cognitive ability, and can therefore only describe t ...

, first called Three-Dimensional Semantics and now called Multi-Dimensional Semantics. He retired in August 2008 from First Nations University of Canada and was appointed Professor Emeritus there. He held that position until his death in

Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 C ...

, six years later. Dr. Galloway was also a composer of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

(since 1956, mainly piano pieces, then synthesizer and orchestrated pieces). His orchestral pieces ''The Night Before Christmas'' and ''Mexican Colors'' have been performed by the

Regina Symphony Orchestra The Regina Symphony Orchestra (RSO) was founded by Frank Laubach, in Regina, Saskatchewan, as the ''Regina Orchestral Society'' in 1908, giving its inaugural concert December 3 of that same year. Becoming the ''Regina Choral and Orchestral Societ ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galloway, Brent 1944 births 2014 deaths American anthropologists American lexicographers American linguists American male composers American composers University of California, Berkeley alumni San Francisco State University alumni Sto:lo Researchers in Gullah anthropology Linguists of Salishan languages 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists 20th-century lexicographers 21st-century lexicographers