Eppes Wayles Browne (born 1941,

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

) is a linguist, Slavist, translator and editor of Slavic journals in several countries. Browne is Professor emeritus of Linguistics at

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 tea ...

, with research interests in Slavic and

general linguistics Theoretical linguistics is a term in linguistics which, like the related term general linguistics, can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to theory of language, or the branch of linguistics which inquires into the n ...

, notably the study and analysis of

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

, where he is one of the leading Western scholars.

Biography

Browne's Slavic studies began with his undergraduate career at

Harvard University 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 high ...

(A.B., 1963, in Linguistics and Slavic Languages), and continued with graduate work at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

and the

University of Novi Sad The University of Novi Sad ( sr, Универзитет у Новом Саду, Univerzitet u Novom Sadu; hu, Újvidéki Egyetem) is a public university in Novi Sad, Serbia. Alongside nationally prestigious University of Belgrade, University of ...

(then in SFR Yugoslavia), culminating in a Ph.D. degree (dated 1980, defended in January 1981, and awarded in 1983) from the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

. He studied with some of the finest linguists and Slavicists of the 20th century, including

Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (russian: Рома́н О́сипович Якобсо́н; October 11, 1896Kucera, Henry. 1983. "Roman Jakobson." ''Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America'' 59(4): 871–883. – July 18,Horace G. Lunt,

Morris Halle Morris Halle (; July 23, 1923 – April 2, 2018) was a Latvian-born Jewish American linguist who was an Institute Professor, and later professor emeritus, of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The father of "modern phonolo ...

, and

Pavle Ivić Pavle Ivić ( sr-cyr, Павле Ивић, ; 1 December 1924 – 19 September 1999) was a Serbian South Slavic dialectologist and phonologist. Biography Both his field work and his synthesizing studies were extensive and authoritative. A few of ...

. His dissertation, directed by , was entitled ''Relativna rečenica u hrvatskom ili srpskom jeziku u poređenju s engleskom situacijom'' ("Relative Clauses in the Croatian or Serbian Language in Comparison with the English Situation") and is one of the first serious attempts to analyze Serbo-Croatian syntax within a

generative grammar Generative grammar, or generativism , is a linguistic theory that regards linguistics as the study of a hypothesised innate grammatical structure. It is a biological or biologistic modification of earlier structuralist theories of linguisti ...

framework. It was later published in revised form, in 1986, as ''Relative Clauses in Serbo-Croatian'', as part of the

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

English-Serbo-Croatian Contrastive Project, by the Institute of Linguistics of

. Besides his present position at Cornell, where he has taught since 1974, Professor Browne has taught at Brown University and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. He has also held research positions at MIT and at the University of Zagreb.

Linguistics

Browne's main interests lie in the syntax of

and other South Slavic languages (with particular attention to relative clauses, clitic placement rules, and complement clauses) and in the contributions data from these languages can make to theoretical work in general linguistics. He has also published works on the topic of the Balkan language area, Slavic historical grammar, comparative and contrastive grammar, and pedagogical grammar. He served as the co-editor of ''Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics: the Cornell Meeting, 1995'' (Michigan Slavic Publications, 1997), and has authored more than 65 articles and 20 reviews, covering topics not just in Serbo-Croatian and South Slavic linguistics but also in Slavic linguistics more generally (including work on

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and on

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

) and in linguistic theory. As part of a team of scholars, described by Slavic and Balkan languages professor

Christina Kramer Christina Elizabeth Kramer is Professor of Slavic and Balkan languages and linguistics at the University of Toronto and Chair of the university's Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures which is part of the Faculty of Arts and Science. ...

as "each recognized internationally in his language area", he wrote the widely cited definitive sketch of Serbo-Croatian grammar: "Serbo-Croat" (pp. 306–387 in The Slavonic Languages, B. Comrie and G. Corbett, eds., Routledge Publishers, 1993). Several reviewers commented favourably on Browne's contribution:

Roland Sussex Roland (Roly) Denis Sussex OAM is Emeritus Professor of Applied Language Studies at the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Sussex hosts a talkback program on language and li ...

considered it superior to an independent monograph on the same language, while Edna Andrews wrote in her review of the book's 2002 second edition, "Wayles Browne does an outstanding job ... and his contribution continues to be one of the best in the field." Browne has also served as linguistics editor for ''The Slavic and East European Journal''. In the Introduction of the recently published book ''A Linguist's Linguist: Studies in South Slavic Linguistics in Honor of E. Wayles Browne'' that "brings together a leading cohort of specialists in South Slavic linguistics to celebrate Wayles Browne's body of works in this area," the editors Steven Franks, Vrinda Chidambaram, and Brian Joseph described Wayles Browne's as "a unique and almost irreplaceable intellectual resource for specialists in Slavic linguistics, working on a myriad of topics in a variety of languages and from a range of theoretical perspectives. He has been a subtle yet persistent force in bringing Slavic puzzles to the attention of the larger world of linguists and in defining the larger significance of these puzzles." In general linguistics, Browne has done research in syntax,

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

, and

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

as well as in

relative clauses A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...

and other subordinate clauses, interrogatives, clitic rules, word order, reflexive verbs, and accent rules, publishing numerous pieces in such major journals as
Balkanistica
',

', and '' Linguistic Inquiry''.

Translations

Browne's literary translations are mostly from

varieties ( Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian). He has been the principal English translator and editor for the Bosnian poet

Sasha Skenderija Sasha Skenderija (born 4 July 1968) is a Bosnian-American poet currently residing in Prague. Biography Skenderija began publishing poetry, prose and criticism in Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian) in the late 1980s, graduating from the University of Sar ...

since 1993, and he has also translated the works of

Mak Dizdar Mehmedalija "Mak" Dizdar (17 October 1917 – 14 July 1971) was a Bosnian poet. His poetry combined influences from the Bosnian Christian culture, Islamic mysticism and cultural remains of medieval Bosnia, and especially the stećci. His works ' ...

Izet Sarajlić Izet Sarajlić (16 March 1930 in Doboj – 2 May 2002 in Sarajevo) was a Bosnian historian of philosophy, essayist, translator and poet. Sarajlić was Bosnia and Herzegovina's best-known poet after World War II, and the former Yugoslavia's most wi ...

, Milorad Pejić and others. Browne has also translated Croatian scholarly works, and translates from or teaches other South Slavic languages, in addition to

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

, Belarusian, Rusyn, and Old Church Slavonic.

Personal life and views

In 1994, Browne and his wife provided accommodation at their home for a student refugee from the Bosnian War, who arrived in the United States as part of a scheme organised by the

Fellowship of Reconciliation The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR or FOR) is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries. They are linked by affiliation to the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). ...

. He later criticised the

1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...

for its effect on civilians, while acknowledging, "if somebody is going to intervene militarily, Slobodan Milošević is a very good person to intervene against."

Works

Major work in linguistics

*Browne, W. (1975). Numerous articles. In R. Filipovic (Ed.), ''Contrastive analysis of English and Serbo-Croatian I.'' Zagreb. *Browne, W. (1986). ''Relative Clauses in Serbo-Croatian in Comaparison with English''. Zagreb. *Browne, W. (1990). Turkisms in the Balkans: True and false friends. ''Languages in Contact''. Zagreb. *Browne, W. (1993). Serbo-Croat. In B. Comrie and G. Corbett (Eds.), ''The Slavonic Languages''. London. *

Selected literary translations

*"Why the Dwarf Had to be Shot (selection)," with Sasha Skenderija and Aaron Tate, in
Absinthe: New European Writing
'
Issue 5, March 2006

DARK BLUE RIVER
by Mak Dizdar (2007)
''Spirit of Bosnia''
Vol. 2, No. 3
On the One-Way Street, with a DogPicture PostcardCommon PlacesWintertime Scene
2008), Spirit of Bosnia, Vol. 3, No. 2

References

External links

Wayles Browne
Cornell Linguistics Department
Wayles Browne
The LINGUIST List
Papers by Wayles Browne
Scientific Commons * {{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Wayles Slavists Translators to English Cornell University faculty Harvard College alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of Novi Sad alumni Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni 1941 births Living people