Even Hovdhaugen (June 21, 1941 – October 16, 2018) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

linguist. He became a professor of general linguistics at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

in 1974.''Store norske leksikon'': Even Hovdhaugen.
/ref> He was an expert in

Polynesian languages The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family. There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austro ...

. Hovdhaugen was born in Oslo, the son of the politician

Einar Hovdhaugen Einar Hovdhaugen (26 February 1908 – 1 July 1996) was a Norwegian politician for the Centre Party. He was born in Ringebu. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oppland in 1958, and was re-elected on two occasions. He had previo ...

.''Norsk biografisk leksikon'': Even Hovdhaugen.
/ref> He received his master's degree in classical philology and comparative Indo-European linguistics in 1966. He carried out field research in Hungary, Turkey, the USSR, Mongolia, Peru, Chile,

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

Tokelau Tokelau (; ; known previously as the Union Islands, and, until 1976, known officially as the Tokelau Islands) is a dependent territory of New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean. It consists of three tropical coral atolls: Atafu, Nukunonu, a ...

, and the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

. He produced extensive research and published textbooks for both university and high school use. He authored grammars of Samoan and

Tokelauan Tokelauan is a Polynesian language spoken in Tokelau and on Swains Island (or Olohega) in American Samoa. It is closely related to Tuvaluan and is related to Samoan and other Polynesian languages. Tokelauan has a co-official status with Engli ...

. In 1995 he was a guest professor at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia after Uppsala Unive ...

, and from 1978 to 1980 he served as the first editor of the '' Nordic Journal of Linguistics''. He held several key positions within university administration and research, including dean of the Faculty of Arts in Oslo. He headed the

Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture ( no, Instituttet for sammenlignende kulturforskning) is a humanities research institute based in Oslo, Norway. It was established in 1922 by Fredrik Stang. An independent institute, its task ...

from 1986 to 1991. In 1992 he received the Fridtjof Nansen Award of Excellence and the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities (NAVF) Prize for Excellence. He resided in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

. He died on October 16, 2018.Death announcement, ''Aftenposten'' October 27, 2018, p. 49

Selected works

*''Transformasjonell generativ grammatikk'' (Transformational Generative Grammar, 1969, 1971) *''Foundations of Western Linguistics'' (1982) *''From the Land of N'afanua. Samoan Oral Texts in Transcription with Translation, Notes and Vocabulary'' (1987) *''A Handbook of the Tokelau Language'' (with Ingjerd Hoëm, Consulata Mahina Iosefo, and Arnfinn Muruvik Vonen, 1989) *''Ko te kalama moamoa Tokelau'' (with Ingjerd Hoëm and Arnfinn Muruvik Vonen, 1989) *''Kupu mai te Tutolu. Tokelau Oral Literature'' (with Ingjerd Hoëm and Arnfinn Muruvik Vonen, 1992) *''Samoan Reference Grammar'' (with Ulrike Mosel, 1992) *(editor) ''...and the Word was God. Missionary Linguistics and Missionary Grammar'' (1996) *''The History of Linguistics in the Nordic Countries'' (with Fred Carlsson, Carol Henriksen, and Bengt Sigurd, 2000)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hovdhaugen, Even Linguists from Norway Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters 1941 births University of Oslo faculty 2018 deaths