Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American

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 ...

who specialized in

North American Indian 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 Ame ...

languages,

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

, and

historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

. She served as president of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

. She was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

and a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

Early life and education

Haas was born in

Richmond, Indiana Richmond is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County and is part of the Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,812. Situa ...

. She attended

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

and

Earlham College Earlham College is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. The college was established in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and has a strong focus on Quaker values such as integrity, a commitment to peace and social ...

in Richmond. She completed her

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

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 ...

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 ...

in 1935 at the age of 25, with a dissertation titled ''A Grammar of the Tunica Language''. In the 1930s, Haas worked with the last native speaker of Tunica,

Sesostrie Youchigant Sesostrie Youchigant, also known as Sam Young (born ; died December 6, 1948), was a chief of the Tunica-Biloxi tribe and the last known native speaker of the Tunica language. He worked with linguist Mary Haas in 1933 (and during four subsequent v ...

, producing extensive texts and vocabularies.

Career and research

Early work in linguistics

Haas undertook graduate work on

comparative philology Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness i ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. She studied under

Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sa ...

, whom she would follow to

Yale 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 wor ...

. She began a long career in linguistic fieldwork, studying various languages during the summer months. Over the ten-year period from 1931 to 1941, Haas studied the

Wakashan Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington (state), Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As is ...

language

Nitinat Ditidaht (also Nitinaht, Nitinat, Southern Nootkan) or diitiidʔaaʔtx̣ is a South Wakashan (Nootkan) language spoken on the southern part of Vancouver Island. Nitinaht is related to the other South Wakashan languages, Makah language, Makah and ...

(

Ditidaht The Ditidaht First Nation is a First Nations band government on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The government has 17 reserve lands: Ahuk, Tsuquanah, Wyah, Clo-oose, Cheewat, Sarque, Carmanah, Iktuksasuk, Hobitan, Oyees, Doo ...

), as well as a number of languages that were mainly originally spoken in the American southeast: Tunica,

Natchez Natchez may refer to: Places * Natchez, Alabama, United States * Natchez, Indiana, United States * Natchez, Louisiana, United States * Natchez, Mississippi, a city in southwestern Mississippi, United States * Grand Village of the Natchez, a site o ...

, Creek,

Koasati The Coushatta ( cku, Koasati, Kowassaati or Kowassa:ti) are a Muskogean-speaking Native American people now living primarily in the U.S. states of Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. When first encountered by Europeans, they lived in the territor ...

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

and Hichiti. Her first published paper, ''A Visit to the Other World, a Nitinat Text'', written in collaboration with

Morris Swadesh Morris Swadesh (; January 22, 1909 – July 20, 1967) was an American linguist who specialized in comparative and historical linguistics. Swadesh was born in Massachusetts to Bessarabian Jewish immigrant parents. He completed bachelor's and mas ...

, was published in 1933. Shortly after, Haas conducted fieldwork with

Watt Sam Watt Sam in 1908 holding a bow. From a series of photos taken by John R. Swanton, near Braggs, Oklahoma. Watt Sam (October 6, 1876 – July 1, 1944) was a Natchez storyteller and cultural historian of Braggs, Oklahoma and one of the two last na ...

and

Nancy Raven Nancy Raven (also Nancy Taylor) (December 25, 1872 – March 25, 1957) was a Natchez storyteller from Braggs, Oklahoma and one of the last two native speakers of the Natchez language. Her father was Cherokee and her mother Natchez, and she learne ...

, the last two native speakers of the

Natchez language The Natchez language is the ancestral language of the Natchez people who historically inhabited Mississippi and Louisiana, and who now mostly live among the Muscogee and Cherokee peoples in Oklahoma. The language is considered to be either unrelat ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. Her extensive unpublished field notes have constituted the most reliable source of information on the now dead language. She conducted extensive fieldwork on the

Creek language The Muscogee language (Muskogee, ''Mvskoke'' in Muscogee), also known as Creek, is a Muskogean language spoken by Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole people, primarily in the US states of Oklahoma and Florida. Along with Mikasuki, when it is spoken by ...

, and was the first modern linguist to collect extensive texts in the language. Her Creek texts were published after her death in a volumed edited and translated by Jack B. Martin, Margaret McKane Mauldin, and Juanita McGirt.

Career at the University of California-Berkeley

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the United States government viewed the study and teaching of Southeast Asian languages as important to the war effort, and under the auspices of the

Army Specialized Training Program The Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) was a military training program instituted by the United States Army during World War II to meet wartime demands both for junior officers and soldiers with technical skills. Conducted at 227 American u ...

at the

University of California at 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 univ ...

, Haas developed a program to teach the Thai language. Her authoritative ''Thai-English Students' Dictionary'', published in 1964, is still in use. In 1948, she was appointed assistant professor of Thai and Linguistics 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 ...

Department of

Oriental Languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turk ...

, an appointment she attributed to

Peter A. Boodberg Peter Alexis Boodberg (born Pyotr Alekseyevich Budberg; 8 April 1903 – 29 June 1972) was a Russian-American scholar, linguist, and sinologist who taught at the University of California, Berkeley for 40 years. Boodberg was influential in 20th ...

, whom she described as "ahead of his time in the way he treated women scholars—a scholar was a scholar in his book". She became one of the founding members of the UC-Berkeley Department of Linguistics when it was established in 1953. She was a long-term chair of the department, and she was Director of the Survey of California Indian Languages at Berkeley from 1953 to 1977. She retired from Berkeley in 1977, and in 1984 she was elected a Berkeley Fellow. Mary Haas died at her home in Berkeley, California, on May 17, 1996, at the age of 86.

Role in teaching

Haas was noted for her dedication to teaching linguistics, and to the role of the linguist in language instruction. Her student

Karl V. Teeter Karl van Duyn Teeter (March 2, 1929 – April 20, 2007) was an American linguistics, linguist known especially for his work on the Algic languages. Life and work Teeter was born in Berkeley, California, to Charles Edwin Teeter, Jr., a college p ...

pointed out in his obituary of Haas that she trained more Americanist linguists than her former instructors

and

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

combined: she supervised fieldwork in Americanist linguistics by more than 100 doctoral students. As a founder and director of the Survey of California Indian Languages, she advised nearly fifty dissertations, including those of many linguists who would go on to be influential in the field, including

William Bright William O. Bright (August 13, 1928 – October 15, 2006) was an American linguist and toponymist who specialized in Native American and South Asian languages and descriptive linguistics. Biography Bright earned a bachelor's degree in linguist ...

(

Karok The Karuk people are an indigenous people of California, and the Karuk Tribe is one of the largest tribes in California. Karuks are also enrolled in two other federally recognized tribes, the Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Ran ...

William Shipley William Shipley (baptised: 2 June 1715 – 28 December 1803) was an English drawing master, social reformer and inventor who, in 1754, founded an arts society in London that became The Royal Society of Arts, or Royal Society for the Encourage ...

(

Maidu The Maidu are a Native American people of northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the watershed area of the Feather and American rivers. They also reside in Humbug Valley. In Maiduan languages, ''Maidu'' means "man." ...

), Robert Oswalt ( Kashaya),

Karl Teeter Karl van Duyn Teeter (March 2, 1929 – April 20, 2007) was an American linguistics, linguist known especially for his work on the Algic languages. Life and work Teeter was born in Berkeley, California, to Charles Edwin Teeter, Jr., a college p ...

(

Wiyot The Wiyot ( Wiyot: Wíyot, Chetco-Tolowa: Wee-’at xee-she or Wee-yan’ Xee-she’, Euchre Creek Tututni: Wii-yat-dv-ne - "Mad River People“, Yurok: Weyet) are an indigenous people of California living near Humboldt Bay, California and a s ...

), Catherine Callahan (

Penutian Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The existence of a Penutian st ...

Margaret Langdon Margaret Langdon (c. 1926 in Louvain, Belgium – October 25, 2005) was a US linguist who studied and documented many languages of the American Southwest and California, including Kumeyaay, Northern Diegueño (Ipai), and Luiseño. Academic care ...

(

Diegueño The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...

), Sally McLendon (Eastern Pomo),

Victor Golla Victor Golla (1939–2021) was a linguist and a leading expert on the indigenous languages of California and Oregon, especially the Pacific Coast Athabaskan subgroup of the Athabaskan language family and the languages of the region that belong t ...

(

Hupa Hupa (Yurok language term: Huep'oola' / Huep'oolaa = "Hupa people") are a Native American people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in northwestern California. Their endonym is Natinixwe, also spelled Natinook-wa, meaning "Peopl ...

Marc Okrand Marc Okrand (; born July 3, 1948) is an American linguist. His professional work is in Native American languages, and he is well known as the creator of the Klingon language in the ''Star Trek'' science fiction franchise. Linguistics As a ling ...

(

Mutsun Mutsun (also known as San Juan Bautista Costanoan) is a Utian language spoken in Northern California. It was the primary language of a division of the Ohlone people living in the Mission San Juan Bautista area. The Tamien Nation and band is cu ...

), Kenneth Whistler ( Proto-Wintun), Douglas Parks (

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...

and

Arikara Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011)

), William Jacobsen ( Washo), and others.

Personal life

She married

, a fellow linguist, in 1931. They divorced in 1937.

Awards and honors

In 1963, Haas served as president of the

. She was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1964. She was elected a fellow of the

in 1974, and she was elected to the

in 1978. She received

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

s from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

in 1975, the

in 1976,

, 1980, and the

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 ...

in 1980.

Notable students

Haas trained many notable linguists, including the following: *

James Matisoff James Alan Matisoff ( zh, , t=馬蒂索夫, s=马蒂索夫, p=Mǎdìsuǒfū or zh, , t=馬提索夫, s=马提索夫, p=Mǎtísuǒfū; born July 14, 1937) is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a no ...

Margaret Landon Margaret Landon (September 7, 1903 – December 4, 1993) was an American writer known for '' Anna and the King of Siam'', her best-selling 1944 novel of the life of Anna Leonowens which eventually sold over a million copies and was translated i ...

Terrence Kaufman Terrence Kaufman (1937 – March 3, 2022) was an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, lexicography, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He was an emeritus professor of linguist ...

* Anthony C. Woodbury * William O. Bright *

William A. Foley William A. Foley (''William Auguste "Bill" Foley;'' born 1949) is an American linguist and professor at Columbia University He was previously located at the University of Sydney. He specializes in Papuan and Austronesian languages. Foley develo ...

* John W. Du Bois * Wick R. Miller *

William F. Shipley William F. Shipley (November 19, 1921 – January 20, 2011) was an American linguist whose main area of research was the now-extinct Maidu language of Northern California. He was one of the last speakers of the language. Life Shipley was a stu ...

William C. Sturtevant William Curtis Sturtevant (1926 Morristown, New Jersey – March 2, 2007) was an anthropologist and ethnologist. He is best known as the general editor of the 20-volume ''Handbook of North American Indians''. Renowned anthropologist Claude Lévi-S ...

Selected publications

* ''The Thai system of writing'', 1943. American Council of Learned Societies. * ''Spoken Thai'', 1945 o-authored with Heng R. Subhanka Linguistic Society of America. * ''Thai reader'', 1945, Berkeley. * ''Tunica texts'', 1950. University of California publications in linguistics, 6.1. Berkeley: University of California Press. 173pp. * ''Thai vocabulary'', 1955. American Council of Learned Societies. * ''The prehistory of languages'', 1960. Mouton. eprint 2018 * ''Thai-English student's dictionary'', 1964. Stanford University Press. * ''Language, culture, and history : essays'', 1978. Stanford University Press. * ''Creek (Muskogee) texts'', 2015. o-authored with James H. Hill University of California Press.

References

External links

Mary Haas Papers
at the American Philosophical Society

at Sealang Library
Concise

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

entry
Interview
recorded on September 30, 1984 (University of Florida Digital Collections) {{DEFAULTSORT:Haas, Mary 1910 births 1996 deaths People from Richmond, Indiana Linguists from the United States Women linguists Historical linguists University of California, Berkeley faculty Yale University alumni University of Chicago alumni Earlham College alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Women lexicographers 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American scientists Linguists of Algic languages Linguists of Siouan languages Linguists of Muskogean languages Paleolinguists Linguists of Thai Linguists of Wakashan languages Linguistic Society of America presidents American women non-fiction writers 20th-century linguists 20th-century lexicographers