Jerold Alan Edmondson (born 1941) (Chinese name: 艾杰瑞 Aì Jiéruì) is an American linguist whose work spans four subdisciplines: historical and comparative linguistics, Asian linguistics, field linguistics, and phonetics. He is a leading specialist in Tai–Kadai languages of Asia, especially the Kam–Sui and

Kra Kra or KRA can refer to: * Kenya Revenue Authority * Key result area, a management term * Kra (band) * Kra (letter) * Kra Isthmus * Kra Peninsula * Kra River, Malay Peninsula * Kra languages * Kra (mythology) * Krita native file extension * Ke ...

branches.

Biography

Edmonson was born in

Plainfield, Indiana Plainfield is a town in Guilford, Liberty, and Washington townships, Hendricks County, Indiana, United States. The population was 27,631 at the 2010 census, and in 2019 the estimated population was 35,287. History In 1822 a tract of land whic ...

. He earned his PhD in Germanic Languages from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in 1973 and a Habilitation in General Linguistics from the Technical University Berlin in 1979. He was an Assistant Professor of English and General Linguistics at the Technical University Berlin from 1976-1980. He joined the faculty of the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of Te ...

in 1981 and went on to attain the rank of Professor, becoming a

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

in 2011. As founding director of the Program in Linguistics from 1991-1999, he shepherded its growth into the current Department of Linguistics and TESOL. Edmondson earned many accolades while at UT Arlington, including the Outstanding Research Award, the Distinguished Record of Research Award, the Alicia Wilkerson Smotherman Faculty Award, and induction into the Academy of Distinguished Scholars. In 2012, he established the Jerold A. Edmondson Research Endowment in Linguistics, proceeds of which generate research grants for students at UTA, with a priority given to projects focusing on field linguistics and endangered languages. Edmondson specializes in studying the

Tai–Kadai languages Tai or TAI may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tai (comics) a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain *Tai Fraiser, a fictional character in the 1995 film ''Clueless'' * Tai Kamiya, a fictional character in ''Digimon'' Businesses and organisation ...

, especially the Kam–Sui and

branches. He was one of the researchers who documented the

En language En (autonym: '; also known as Nùng Vên) is a Kra language spoken in Vietnam. Before its discovery in 1998, En language was undistinguished from Nùng, which is a Central Tai language closely related to Zhuang. In the late 1990s, Vietnamese l ...

during a linguistic field expedition in the late 1990s. In 1996, he received a

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

grant to study the minority languages spoken along the Vietnam and China borders. He tracked down two previously undocumented languages, Xa Pho and Nung Ven, in northern Viet Nam. Edmondson has performed field investigations of many Southeast Asian languages such as various

Loloish languages The Loloish languages, also known as Yi in China and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of fifty to a hundred Sino-Tibetan languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of China. They are most closely related to Burmese and its relat ...

, Bai, Kháng, and Pa-Hng, as well as languages spoken on other continents, such as

Triqui The Triqui (, ) or Trique () are an indigenous people of the western part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, centered in the municipalities of Juxtlahuaca, Tlaxiaco and Putla. They number around 23,000 according to Ethnologue surveys. The Triq ...

and Dinka.

Selected publications

*J.A. Edmondson and J.H. Esling. 2006. “The valves of the throat and their functioning in tone, vocal register and stress: laryngoscopic case studies” ''Phonology'' 23(2):157-191. *W.R. Merrifield and J.A.Edmondson. 1999. "Palantla Chinantec: Phonetic experiments on nasalization, stress, and tone," ''International journal of American linguistics'' 65(3): 303-323. * V.L. Nguyen and J.A. Edmondson. 1998. “Tones and voice quality in modern northern Viemamese: Instrumental case studies,” ''Mon-khmer Studies.'' *J.A. Edmondson, D.B. Solnit. 1997. ''Comparative Kadai: the Tai branch. ''SIL. *J.A. Edmondson and K.J. Gregerson. 1993. “Western Cham as a register language,” ''Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication, ''No. 24, Tonality in Austronesian Languages, pp. 61–74. *H. Den Besten and J.A. Edmondson. 1983. "The verbal complex in continental West Germanic." ''On the Formal Syntax of the Westgermania.'' John Bejamins. pp. 155–216.

References

External links

Official faculty page of Jerold A. Edmondson

Lesser Known Languages of Northern Vietnam

Interview: Dr. Jerold Edmondson on unknown Vietnamese languages on NPR's All Things Considered. {{DEFAULTSORT:Edmondson, Jerold A. Linguists from the United States Linguists of Southeast Asian languages Linguists of Kra–Dai languages Linguists of Kra languages Linguists of Hmong–Mien languages University of Texas at Arlington faculty Living people 1941 births University of California, Los Angeles alumni Linguists of Sino-Tibetan languages Linguists of Loloish languages Linguists of Austroasiatic languages