George Tobias Flom (April 12, 1871 – January 4, 1960) was an American professor of

linguistics Linguistics is the science, 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 ...

and author of numerous reference books.

Background

George Tobias Flom was born in Utica,

Dane County Dane County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 561,504, making it the second-most populous county in Wisconsin. The county seat is Madison, which is also the state capital. Dane County is the ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. His grandfather had immigrated to the U.S. from

Aurland Aurland () is a municipality in the county of Vestland, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center is the village of Aurlandsvangen. Other villages include Bakka ...

Sogn og Fjordane Sogn og Fjordane (; English: "Sogn and Fjordane") was, up to 1 January 2020, a county in western Norway, when it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland, the cou ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

at the beginning of the 1840s. Flom studied at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

from 1889 to 1893, received his master's degree from

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

in 1894, and studied in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

from 1898 to 1899. He received his doctorate from

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 ...

in 1900 for a thesis on the Nordic influence on the

Scots language Scots ( endonym: ''Scots''; gd, Albais, ) is an Anglic language variety in the West Germanic language family, spoken in Scotland and parts of Ulster in the north of Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots). Most commonl ...

Career

Flom was a professor of

Scandinavian languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

and literature at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

(1900–1909) and at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

(1909–1927). In 1911 he was an organizer of the

Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS) is a scholarly society that aims to advance the study, teaching and research in America of the languages, literature, history, culture and society of the Scandinavian or Nordic countries ...

and served as editor of that society’s journal. He was also an associate editor of the ''

Journal of English and Germanic Philology The ''Journal of English and Germanic Philology'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of medieval studies that was established in 1897 and is now published by University of Illinois Press. Its focus is on the cultures of English, Germani ...

''. He was a linguist and a member of the American Philological Society. In 1936, he was the 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'', ...

. His areas of expertise included Scandinavian paleography and

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

Norse literature Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian peoples up to c. 1350. It chiefly consists of Icelandic writings. In Britain From the 8th to the 15th centuries, Vikings and Norse settlers and their descendants colon ...

and comparative linguistics relating to English, German and the Scandinavian languages. As an author, articles by Flom frequently appears in the literary magazine '' Symra''. Flom was the author of ''A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States: From the Earliest Beginning Down to the Year 1848''. In this 1909 study, Flom laid out the establishment of early Norwegian immigrant settlement in North America starts with the settlement of

Orange County, New York Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 401,310. The county seat is Goshen. This county was first created in 1683 and reorganized with its present boundaries in 1798. Orange ...

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 ...

immigrants, known as "Sloopers." The study follows the journey of Norwegian immigrants as they settled in communities principally located in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. Flom was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

, and he was knighted by 1 Class of the

Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

in 1939. George T. Flom Library at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

contains the former personal library of Flom. It consisted largely of collections of Danish, Swedish, Old Norse, Icelandic, Faroese, and Norwegian language, literature, and culture.George T. Flom Library (University Library. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Selected bibliography

*''Scandinavian Influence on Southern Lowland Scotch'' (1900) *''Chapters on Scandinavian Immigration to Iowa'' (1906) *''A History of the Scandinavian Studies in American Universities, Together with a Bibliography'' (1907) *''A History of Norwegian Immigration to the United States: From the Earliest Beginning Down to the Year 1848'' (1909) *''The Kensington Rune-Stone: An Address'' (1910) *''The Phonology of the Dialect of Aurland, Norway'' (1915) *''The Language of the Konungs Skuggsja (Speculum Regale)'' (1923) *''Introductory Old English Grammar and Reader'' (1930) *''Journal of English and Germanic Philology'' (1930) *''Old Norwegian General Law of the Gulathing: According to Codex Gl.k.S. 1154 Folio'' (1937) *''The Morphology of the Dialect on Aurland in Sogn, Norway'' (1944) *''Bjornson's Synnove Solbakken'' (1944)

References

External links

“University of Illinois Archives - George T. Flom Papers”“The Promise of America – George Tobias Flom””Journal of English and Germanic Philology””American Philological Association”Linguistic Society of America”
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flom, George Linguists from the United States Anglo-Saxon studies scholars American people of Norwegian descent Germanic studies scholars Linguists of Germanic languages People from Christiana, Dane County, Wisconsin University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty 1871 births 1960 deaths Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters People from Urbana, Illinois Linguistic Society of America presidents