Michael Fortescue Explained
Michael David Fortescue |
Birth Date: | 1946 8, df=y |
Birth Place: | United Kingdom |
Occupation: | Linguist |
Michael David Fortescue (born 8 August 1946, Thornbury) is a British-born linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi and Nitinaht.
Fortescue is known for his reconstructions of the Eskaleut, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Nivkh, and Wakashan proto-languages.
Biography
As a young teenager, Michael Fortescue and his family moved to California where he went to La Jolla High School 1956-1959. He finished school at Abingdon School in 1963.[1] In 1966, he received a B.A. with "Honours with great Distinction" in Slavic languages and literatures from University of California, Berkeley, where he then taught Russian 1968-1970 and finished an M.A. in Slavic languages and literatures. In the years 1971-1975 he taught English for the International Language Centre in Osaka and the University of Aix/Marseille.[2] He took a PhD in Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh 1975-1978[3] with the thesis Procedural discourse generation model for 'Twenty Questions.[4] With a Danish scholarship, he visited University of Copenhagen and did fieldwork in Greenland in 1978-79, and this research became supported from the Danish Research Council for the Humanities in the period 1979-1982. In 1984, he became associate professor in eskimology at the University of Copenhagen, and in 1989 docent.[2] He became professor in linguistics in 1999, and retired in 2011.
On the occasion of his retirement in 2011, a special issue in the journal Grønland was published in 2012 as a festschrift. After retiring, he moved to England,[5] where he was elected an associate of St Hugh's College. An edited book was published as a festschrift in his honour in 2017. In 2019, he was elected to Academia Europaea.[6]
He was chairman of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen 2005-2011.[7]
Selected works
His Comparative Eskimo Dictionary, co-authored with Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan,[8] is the standard work in its area, as is his Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary.[9] In his book Pattern and Process,[10] Fortescue explores the possibilities of a linguistic theory based on the philosophical theories of Alfred North Whitehead.[11] [12]
A more complete listing is available in the Festschrift in his honor.[13]
- 1984. Some Problems Concerning the Correlation and Reconstruction of Eskimo and Aleut Mood Markers. Institut for Eskimologi, Københavns Universitet.
- 1990. From the Writings of the Greenlanders: Kalaallit Atuakklaannit. University of Alaska Press.
- 1991. Inuktun: An Introduction to the Language of Qaanaaq, Thule. Institut for eskimologis skriftrække, Københavns Universitet.
- 1992. Editor. Layered Structure and Reference in a Functional Perspective. John Benjamins Publishing Co.
- 1994. With Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan. Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates. Alaska Native Language Center.
- 1998. Language Relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence. London and New York: Cassell.
- 2001. Pattern and Process: A Whiteheadian Perspective on Linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing Co.
- 2002. The Domain of Language. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
- 2005. Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
- 2007. Comparative Wakashan Dictionary. Munich: LINCOM Europa.
- 2016. Comparative Nivkh Dictionary. Munich: LINCOM Europa.
See also
References
- Web site: Valete Et Salvete. The Abingdonian.
- Web site: Michael David Fortescue - Curriculum vitae - Staff . University of Copenhagen . 15 November 2023 . 20 August 2022 . 20 August 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220820050223/https://nors.ku.dk/english/staff/?pure=en%2Fpersons%2Fmichael-david-fortescue(4849f059-9eea-4c76-9fb0-a17c20f48d78)%2Fcv.html . bot: unknown .
- Web site: Michael Fortescue - Curriculum Vitae . www.ae-info.org . Academia Europaea . 22 June 2024.
- Michael D.. Fortescue. 1978. Procedural discourse generation model for 'Twenty Questions'. University of Edinburg . Ph.D. thesis. 1842/17443. free.
- Grove. Arnaq. Introduktion til festskrift i anledning af Michael Fortescues fratrædelse fra Københavns Universitet . Grønland . 2012 . 60 . 2 . 80-83.
- Web site: Academy of Europe: Fortescue Michael . www.ae-info.org . 22 June 2024.
- Web site: Michael Fortescue. Riegels. Naja . Den Store Danske . Danish . Lex.dk . 2009-01-30 . 2023-11-15.
- Reviews:
- Reviews:
- Review:
- Web site: Michael David Fortescue – Københavns Universitet . Inss.ku.dk . 8 August 2007. 2010-01-25.
- Web site: Michael David Fortescue – University of Copenhagen . Research.ku.dk . 2010-01-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110719125630/http://research.ku.dk/search/profil/?id=44519 . 2011-07-19 . dead .
- Book: Kaplan . Lawrence D. . Berge . Anna . Studies in Inuit Linguistics. In Honor of Michael Fortescue . 2017 . Alaska Native Language Center . Fairbanks, Alaska . 978-1-55500-125-4 . 185–190 . Publications on Indigenous Languages by Michael D. Fortescue.