Philip S. LeSourd is a linguist and an anthropology professor at Indiana University in the United States. He is one of the world's foremost experts on the

Maliseet The Wəlastəkwewiyik, or Maliseet (, also spelled Malecite), are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the indigenous people of the Wolastoq ( Saint John River) valley and its tributaries. Their territory ...

Passamaquoddy The Passamaquoddy ( Maliseet-Passamaquoddy: ''Peskotomuhkati'') are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America. Their traditional homeland, Peskotomuhkatik'','' straddles the Canadian province of New Brunswick ...

language and the Algonquian language family. LeSourd earned both a bachelor's degree and a Ph.D. in linguistics at MIT. He became fascinated with Algonquian languages after a class in the Mesquakie (Fox) language from Ives Goddard at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

soon after finishing his bachelor's degree. At the instigation of Karl Teeter and later Ken Hale, he spent time residing among the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy communities in Maine, United States and New Brunswick, Canada. He studied the language both academically, with expert

Robert Leavitt Robert Grandison Leavitt (September 20, 1883 – February 2, 1954) was an American track and field athlete, winner of 110 m hurdles at the 1906 Intercalated Games. Robert Leavitt was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Mercersburg ...

of the Mi'kmaq - Maliseet Institute at the University of New Brunswick, and through study with a variety of native speakers. LeSourd, Leavitt, and native Passamaquoddy speaker David Francis, Sr. launched a Maliseet-Passamaquoddy to English dictionary project, which resulted in a published dictionary entitled '' Kolusuwakonol'', about eight years after the project began. The project has continued since, including with funding by

Industry Canada Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED; french: Innovation, Sciences et Développement économique Canada; french: ISDE, label=none)''Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal I ...

and the National Science Foundation, and has been made available online. LeSourd has continued actively to research Maliseet-Passamaquoddy and a variety of other Algonquian languages.

External links

Faculty profile
at Indiana University
Kolusuwakonol: Philips S. Lesourd's English and Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Dictionary
at Amazon.com
Accent and Syllable Structure in Passamaquoddy (Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics)
at Amazon.com
Maliseet - Passamaquoddy Dictionary
hosted by the Mi'kmaq - Maliseet Institute

by Robert M. Leavitt, presented at the “Revitalizing Algonquian Languages Conference: Sharing Effective Language Renewal Practices II” at the

Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center is a museum of Native American culture in Mashantucket, Connecticut, owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. Overview The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, l ...

, Feb. 2004, credits LeSourd's role Living people Harvard University alumni MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni American anthropologists Linguists from the United States Indiana University faculty Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-linguist-stub