Carl Gustav Arvid Olof Croneberg (April 26, 1930 – August 7, 2022) was a Swedish-American Deaf

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 ...

known for his work on

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...

(ASL).

Background

Croneberg was born in 1930 in Norrbacka, near Stockholm, and graduated from

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first sc ...

in 1955 with bachelor's degree in English.

Career

In 1958, Croneberg was recruited by

William C. Stokoe William C. Stokoe Jr. ( ; July 21, 1919 – April 4, 2000) was an American linguist and a long-time professor at Gallaudet University. His research on American Sign Language (ASL) revolutionized the understanding of ASL in the United States and ...

to work in a research laboratory for a linguistic analysis of the language of signs. Alongside researchers William C. Stokoe and Dorothy S. Casterline, he noticed that ASL has a linguistic system (phonology, morphology, syntax). They recognized ASL as a natural language with its own rules of grammar and syntax. Later, he was a co-writer of ''A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles'', with Stokoe and Casterline. In the book, Croneberg gave an early ethnographic and sociological portrait on the Deaf community and its regional dialects.Hochgesang, J. A., & Miller, M. T. (2016). A celebration of the Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles: Fifty years later. ''Sign Language Studies Journal'', 16(4). Croneberg was one of the first sociologists to use the term "culture" to describe signing deaf Americans' way of life, and was the first to discuss the differences between

Black ASL Black American Sign Language (BASL) or Black Sign Variation (BSV) is a dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) used most commonly by deaf African Americans in the United States. The divergence from ASL was influenced largely by the segregatio ...

and white ASL. The term was first written in uppercase as "Deaf culture" in 1975. The work on Deaf Culture and Black American Sign Language continues. Croneberg knew four languages: Swedish, German, English and ASL. He taught in the English department at Gallaudet University for 30 years until his retirement in 1986. On May 13, 2022, Croneberg was awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Gallaudet University for his pioneer work in American Sign Language research.

Personal life and death

Croneberg was married to the former Eleanor Wetzel, and had two daughters and a son. He died on August 7, 2022, at the age of 92.

Publications

*Stokoe, William C.; Dorothy C. Casterline; Carl G. Croneberg. 1965. ''A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles''. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet College Press

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Croneberg, Carl G. 1930 births 2022 deaths Deaf culture Gallaudet University faculty Linguists from Sweden Linguists from the United States Naturalized citizens of the United States Place of death missing Swedish emigrants to the United States Swedish deaf people Scientists with disabilities