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 to the

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 s ...

phylum. He was emeritus professor of anthropology at

Humboldt State University California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt also known as Cal Poly Humboldt, Humboldt or Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California or California State Polytechnic Universi ...

and lived in

Trinidad, California Trinidad ( Spanish for "Trinity"; Yurok: ''Chuerey'') is a seaside city in Humboldt County, located on the Pacific Ocean north of the Arcata-Eureka Airport and north of the college town of Arcata. Trinidad is noted for its coastline with te ...

Life and work

Golla was born in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area ...

, and grew up in the small town of Mt. Shasta, in the far north of the state, where his father was a

funeral director A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as w ...

and deputy coroner of

Siskiyou County Siskiyou County (, ) is a county in the northernmost part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,076. Its county seat is Yreka and its highest point is Mount Shasta. It falls within the Cascadia bioregion ...

. The family moved to the San Francisco Bay area in 1952, and Golla attended high school in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

. He graduated from

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

in 1960 and received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the same institution in 1970. Golla taught briefly at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

(assistant professor of linguistics, 1966–1967) and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(instructor in anthropology, 1967–1968), and then settled in Washington, D.C. for two decades, teaching in the anthropology department at

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

(1968–1988) and conducting research on the extensive archival documentation of American Indian languages that is housed in the

National Anthropological Archives The National Anthropological Archives is a collection of historical and contemporary documents maintained by the Smithsonian Institution, which document the history of anthropology and the world's peoples and cultures. It is located in the Smi ...

at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. In 1988, he was invited to join the faculty of

, in

Arcata, California Arcata (; Wiyot language, Wiyot: ''Goudi’ni''; Yurok language, Yurok: ''Oket'oh'') is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay (United States), Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, Humboldt County, Californ ...

, as professor of Native American Studies and director of the Center for Indian Community Development. In 1981 Golla helped found the

Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) is an international organization founded in 1981 devoted to the study of the indigenous languages of North, Central, and South America. SSILA has an annual winter meeti ...

(SSILA), and subsequently served for 25 years as the Society's secretary-treasurer and editor of its quarterly ''SSILA Newsletter'' (1982 to 2007). SSILA established the Victor Golla Prize in his honor, to recognize Americanist linguists who show "a significant history of both linguistic scholarship and service to the scholarly community". In addition to his work at Humboldt, Golla held a series of visiting appointments at

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

(professor of anthropology 1996–1997; research associate in anthropology, 1997–2006), and from 2001 co-principal investigator of the J. P. Harrington Database Project. He also served as a linguistic consultant to the Hoopa Valley Tribe, where he was responsible for creating the Hupa Practical Alphabet and a number of pedagogical and reference materials, including an English-Hupa bilingual dictionary (1996a). He was the author of several scholarly books and numerous articles on American Indian languages, including three grammars of Hupa (1970, 1986a, 1996b) and a 1000-page compendium of the Hupa lexical and grammatical materials collected in 1927 by Edward Sapir (Sapir & Golla 2001). His last major publication, ''California Indian Languages'' (2011), was awarded the 2013

Leonard Bloomfield Book Award 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'', ...

by 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'', ...

for being the recently published book "which makes the most outstanding contribution to the development of our understanding of language and linguistics". In 2015 Golla was named a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

(AAAS). In selecting Golla, the society cited his "influential research on Native American linguistics and ethnography" and his "outstanding service to the profession." Golla died at his home in

, in April 2021 of advanced

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

and a stroke.

Major publications

*Golla, Victor (1970). ''Hupa Grammar.'' Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. *Golla, Victor (1976). Tututni (Oregon Athapaskan). ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 42:217-227. *Golla, Victor & Shirley Silver, editors (1978). ''Northern California Texts.'' IJAL-Native American Texts Series 2(2). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *Krauss, Michael E. & Victor Golla (1981). Athabaskan Languages of the Subarctic. In ''Handbook of North American Indians,'' volume 6:''Subarctic'' (June Helm, editor), pp. 67–85. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. *Golla, Victor (1984). ''The Sapir-Kroeber Correspondence. Letters Between Edward Sapir and A. L. Kroeber, 1905-1925.'' Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, Report 6. Berkeley: Department of Linguistics, University of California. *Golla, Victor (1986a). ''A Short Practical Grammar of Hupa''. Hoopa: Hupa Language Project, Hoopa Valley Tribe. *Whistler, Kenneth W. & Victor Golla (1986b). Proto-Yokuts Reconsidered. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 52: 317-358 *Golla, Victor (1987). Sapir, Kroeber, and North American Linguistic Classification. In ''New Perspectives on Edward Sapir in Language, Culture and Personality'' (W. Cowan et al., editors), pp. 17–38. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. *Golla, Victor, editor (1994). ''John P. Harrington and His Legacy.'' Special Issue, ''Anthropological Linguistics'' (volume 33.4, March 1984). *Golla, Victor (1996a). ''Hupa Language Dictionary, Second Edition.'' Arcata: Center for Indian Community Development, Humboldt State University and Hoopa Valley Tribe. *Golla, Victor (1996b). Sketch of Hupa, an Athapaskan Language. ''Handbook of North American Indians,'' volume 17, ''Languages'' (Ives Goddard, editor), pp. 364–389. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. *DeLancey, Scott & Victor Golla (1997). Penutian: Retrospect and Prospect. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 63:171-201 *Sapir, Edward & Victor Golla (2001). Hupa Texts, with Notes and Lexicon. In: ''The Collected Works of Edward Sapir,'' volume 14, ''Northwest California Linguistics'' (Victor Golla & Sean O’Neill, editors), pp. 19–1011. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. *Golla, Victor (2003). Ishi's Language. In: ''Ishi in Three Centuries'' (Karl Kroeber & Clifton Kroeber, editors), pp. 208–225. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. *Golla, Victor &

Juliette Blevins Juliette Blevins is an American linguist whose work has contributed to the fields of phonology, phonetics, historical linguistics, and typology. She is currently Professor of Linguistics at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Career Blevins received her ...

(2005). A New Mission Indian Manuscript from the San Francisco Bay Area. ''Boletíin, California Mission Studies Association'' 22:33-61. *Golla, Victor (2007a). North America. In: ''Encyclopedia of the World’s Endangered Languages'' (Christopher Moseley, editor), pp. 1–96. London & New York: Routledge. *Golla, Victor (2007b). Linguistic Prehistory. In: ''California Prehistory. Colonization, Culture and Complexity'' (Terry L. Jones & Kathryn A. Klar, editors), pp. 71–82. Lanham (Maryland): Altamira Press. *Golla, Victor, with Lyle Campbell, Ives Goddard & Marianne Mithun (2008). North America. In: ''Atlas of the World’s Languages, second revised edition'' (R.E. Asher & Christopher Moseley, editors). London & New York: Routledge. *Golla, Victor (2011). ''California Indian Languages'' Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golla, Victor 1939 births 2021 deaths University of California, Berkeley alumni Anthropological linguists American anthropologists Linguists from the United States People from Mount Shasta, California People from Trinidad, California Linguists of Na-Dene languages Linguists of Hokan languages Linguists of Penutian languages Paleolinguists