Eleanor Harz Jorden (1920 – February 18, 2009) was an American linguistics scholar and an influential

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...

educator and expert. Born Eleanor Harz, she married

William Jorden William John Jorden (May 3, 1923 – February 20, 2009) was a diplomatic correspondent for ''The New York Times'', United States Ambassador to Panama, and author. Jorden studied at Yale University, receiving a bachelor's degree in internation ...

, reporter and diplomat; the marriage ended in divorce. Jorden earned her Ph.D. at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

under the direction of Bernard Bloch in 1950.J. Marshall Unger, ''Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan'' (Oxford University Press US, 1996: ), p. 100. She was best known for her seminal textbooks on the Japanese language, including ''Beginning Japanese'' and '' Japanese: The Spoken Language''. The latter text included Jorden's JSL system of

rōmaji The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as . Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Ch ...

for transcribing Japanese into

Roman script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Ital ...

. Her explanations of the subtleties of

Japanese grammar Japanese is an agglutinative, synthetic, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent. Word order is normally subject–object–verb with parti ...

and usage are still widely referenced today. Jorden taught Japanese at many educational institutions, including

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

, the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

International Christian University is a non-denominational private university located in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, commonly known as ICU. With the efforts of Prince Takamatsu, General Douglas MacArthur, and BOJ President Hisato Ichimada, ICU was established in 1949 as the first ...

in Tokyo and

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. For many years, Jorden also served as Chairman of the Department of East Asian Languages at the U.S. State Department's

Foreign Service Institute The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the United States federal government's primary training institution for employees of the U.S. foreign affairs community, preparing American diplomats as well as other professionals to advance U.S. foreig ...

(FSI). Jorden also founded several programs, including the intensive FALCON Program at

and the Foreign Service Institute Japanese Language School in Tokyo, Japan.

Honors

Order of the Precious Crown The is a Japanese order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. Since the Order of the Rising Sun at that time was an Order for men, it was established as an Order for women. Originally the order had five classes, but on Ap ...

, 1985.National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs (NASILP)
Eleanor Jorden
. *

Japan Foundation Award The Japan Foundation Awards honor individuals and organizations for significant contributions to "the enhancement of mutual understanding between Japan and other countries." History Activities in an academic or cultural field have been presented ...

, 1985
Anthony Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) is an organization aiming to improve and expand the teaching and learning of all languages at all levels of instruction. ACTFL is an individual membership organization of more than 13 ...

(ACTFL), 1993. *

, honorary doctorate. "Eleanor 'Mudd' Harz Jorden Dies at 88,"
''Vineyard Gazette.'' March 6, 2009. * Knox College, honorary doctorate. *

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

, honorary doctorate. *

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (, gd, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built w ...

(Scotland), honorary doctorate. * President of the

Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Association provides members with an Annua ...

in 1980.

Selected bibliography

* Jorden, Eleanor Harz & Chaplin, Hamako Ito (1962) ''Beginning Japanese: Part 1.'' New Haven, CT:

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

. * Jorden, Eleanor Harz & Chaplin, Hamako Ito (1963) ''Beginning Japanese: Part 2.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. * Jorden, Eleanor Harz & Chaplin, Hamako Ito (1976) ''Reading Japanese.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. * Jorden, Eleanor Harz & Noda, Mari (1987). '' Japanese, The Spoken Language: Part 1.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. * Jorden, Eleanor Harz & Noda, Mari (1988). ''Japanese, The Spoken Language: Part 2.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. * Jorden, Eleanor Harz & Noda, Mari (1990). ''Japanese, The Spoken Language: Part 3.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. * Jorden, Eleanor H., with Richard Lambert (1991). ''Japanese Language Instruction in the United States: Resources, Practice, and Investment Strategy.'' Washington, D.C.: Natl. Foreign Lang. Center.

References

External links

''Cornell Chronicle'' obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jorden, Eleanor 1920 births 2009 deaths Cornell University faculty Ohio State University faculty Order of the Precious Crown members Presidents of the Association for Asian Studies Yale University alumni Linguists of Japanese