Post by Okwes on Oct 30, 2006 11:23:21 GMT -5
William Bright, 78, Expert in Indigenous Languages, Is Dead
www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/books/23bright.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/books/23bright.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>
By MARGALIT FOX
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/margalit_f\
ox/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Published: October 23, 2006 William
Bright, an internationally renowned linguist who spent more than half a
century inventorying the vanishing riches of the indigenous languages of
the United States, died on Oct. 15 in Louisville, Colo. He was 78 and
lived in Boulder, Colo. The cause was a brain tumor, said his daughter,
Susie Bright, the well-known writer of erotica. At his death, Mr. Bright
was professor adjoint of linguistics at the University of Colorado
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni\
versity_of_colorado/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , Boulder. He was also
emeritus professor of linguistics and anthropology at the University of
California
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni\
versity_of_california/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , Los Angeles, where he
taught from 1959 to 1988. An authority on the native languages and
cultures of California, Mr. Bright was known in particular for his work
on Karuk (also spelled Karok), an American Indian language from the
northwest part of the state. Shortly before his death, in recognition of
his efforts to document and preserve the language, he was made an
honorary member of the Karuk tribe, the first outsider to be so honored.
His books include “American Indian Linguistics and
Literature” (Mouton, 1984); “A Coyote Reader”
(University of California, 1993); “1,500 California Place Names:
Their Origin and Meaning” (University of California, 1998); and
“Native American Placenames of the United States”
(University of Oklahoma
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni\
versity_of_oklahoma/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , 2004). Mr.
Bright’s approach to the study of language was one seldom seen
nowadays. With the ascendance of Noam Chomsky
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/noam_choms\
ky/index.html?inline=nyt-per> in the late 1950’s, linguistics
shifted its focus from documenting language as an artifact of human
culture to analyzing it as a window onto human cognition. But to Mr.
Bright, language was inseparable from its cultural context, which might
include songs, poetry, stories and everyday conversation. And so,
lugging unwieldy recording devices, he continued to make forays into
traditional communities around the world, sitting down with native
speakers and eliciting words, phrases and sentences. Among the languages
on which he worked were Nahuatl, an Aztec language of Mexico;
Cakchiquel, of Guatemala; Luiseño, Ute, Wishram and Yurok, languages
of the Western United States; and Lushai, Kannada, Tamil and Tulu,
languages of the Indian subcontinent. William Oliver Bright was born on
Aug. 13, 1928, in Oxnard, Calif. He received a bachelor’s degree
in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949.
After a stint in Army intelligence, he earned a doctorate in linguistics
from Berkeley in 1955. He began his fieldwork among the Karuk in 1949.
At the time, their language was a tattered remnant of its former
splendor, spoken by just a handful of elders. Since encounters with
Europeans had rarely ended well for the Karuk, the community had little
reason to welcome an outsider. But Bill Bright was deferential, curious
and, at 21, scarcely more than a boy. He was also visibly homesick. The
Karuk grandmothers took him in, baking him cookies and cakes and sharing
their language. They named him Uhyanapatanvaanich, “little
word-asker.” In 1957, Mr. Bright published “The Karok
Language” (University of California), a detailed description of
the language and its structure. Last year, the tribe published a Karuk
dictionary, compiled by Mr. Bright and Susan Gehr. Today, Karuk children
learn the language in tribal schools. Mr. Bright was divorced twice and
widowed twice. From his first marriage, he is survived by his daughter,
Susannah (known as Susie), of Santa Cruz, Calif. Also surviving are his
wife, Lise Menn, a professor of linguistics at the University of
Colorado; two stepsons, Stephen Menn of Montreal and Joseph Menn of Los
Angeles; one grandchild; and two step-grandchildren. His other books
include “The World’s Writing Systems” (Oxford
University
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/o/oxf\
ord_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , 1996), which he edited with
Peter T. Daniels; and the International Encyclopedia of Linguistics
(Oxford University, 1992), of which he was editor in chief. From 1966 to
1987, Mr. Bright was the editor of Language, the field’s flagship
journal. The professor was also a meticulous reader of all his
daughter’s manuscripts. He displayed the finished products
�" among them “Susie Bright’s Sexual State of the
Union” (Simon & Schuster, 1997) and “Mommy’s Little
Girl: On Sex, Motherhood, Porn and Cherry Pie” (Thunder’s
Mouth Press, 2003) �" proudly on his shelves at home.
www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/books/23bright.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/books/23bright.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>
By MARGALIT FOX
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/margalit_f\
ox/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Published: October 23, 2006 William
Bright, an internationally renowned linguist who spent more than half a
century inventorying the vanishing riches of the indigenous languages of
the United States, died on Oct. 15 in Louisville, Colo. He was 78 and
lived in Boulder, Colo. The cause was a brain tumor, said his daughter,
Susie Bright, the well-known writer of erotica. At his death, Mr. Bright
was professor adjoint of linguistics at the University of Colorado
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni\
versity_of_colorado/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , Boulder. He was also
emeritus professor of linguistics and anthropology at the University of
California
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni\
versity_of_california/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , Los Angeles, where he
taught from 1959 to 1988. An authority on the native languages and
cultures of California, Mr. Bright was known in particular for his work
on Karuk (also spelled Karok), an American Indian language from the
northwest part of the state. Shortly before his death, in recognition of
his efforts to document and preserve the language, he was made an
honorary member of the Karuk tribe, the first outsider to be so honored.
His books include “American Indian Linguistics and
Literature” (Mouton, 1984); “A Coyote Reader”
(University of California, 1993); “1,500 California Place Names:
Their Origin and Meaning” (University of California, 1998); and
“Native American Placenames of the United States”
(University of Oklahoma
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni\
versity_of_oklahoma/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , 2004). Mr.
Bright’s approach to the study of language was one seldom seen
nowadays. With the ascendance of Noam Chomsky
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/noam_choms\
ky/index.html?inline=nyt-per> in the late 1950’s, linguistics
shifted its focus from documenting language as an artifact of human
culture to analyzing it as a window onto human cognition. But to Mr.
Bright, language was inseparable from its cultural context, which might
include songs, poetry, stories and everyday conversation. And so,
lugging unwieldy recording devices, he continued to make forays into
traditional communities around the world, sitting down with native
speakers and eliciting words, phrases and sentences. Among the languages
on which he worked were Nahuatl, an Aztec language of Mexico;
Cakchiquel, of Guatemala; Luiseño, Ute, Wishram and Yurok, languages
of the Western United States; and Lushai, Kannada, Tamil and Tulu,
languages of the Indian subcontinent. William Oliver Bright was born on
Aug. 13, 1928, in Oxnard, Calif. He received a bachelor’s degree
in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949.
After a stint in Army intelligence, he earned a doctorate in linguistics
from Berkeley in 1955. He began his fieldwork among the Karuk in 1949.
At the time, their language was a tattered remnant of its former
splendor, spoken by just a handful of elders. Since encounters with
Europeans had rarely ended well for the Karuk, the community had little
reason to welcome an outsider. But Bill Bright was deferential, curious
and, at 21, scarcely more than a boy. He was also visibly homesick. The
Karuk grandmothers took him in, baking him cookies and cakes and sharing
their language. They named him Uhyanapatanvaanich, “little
word-asker.” In 1957, Mr. Bright published “The Karok
Language” (University of California), a detailed description of
the language and its structure. Last year, the tribe published a Karuk
dictionary, compiled by Mr. Bright and Susan Gehr. Today, Karuk children
learn the language in tribal schools. Mr. Bright was divorced twice and
widowed twice. From his first marriage, he is survived by his daughter,
Susannah (known as Susie), of Santa Cruz, Calif. Also surviving are his
wife, Lise Menn, a professor of linguistics at the University of
Colorado; two stepsons, Stephen Menn of Montreal and Joseph Menn of Los
Angeles; one grandchild; and two step-grandchildren. His other books
include “The World’s Writing Systems” (Oxford
University
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/o/oxf\
ord_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org> , 1996), which he edited with
Peter T. Daniels; and the International Encyclopedia of Linguistics
(Oxford University, 1992), of which he was editor in chief. From 1966 to
1987, Mr. Bright was the editor of Language, the field’s flagship
journal. The professor was also a meticulous reader of all his
daughter’s manuscripts. He displayed the finished products
�" among them “Susie Bright’s Sexual State of the
Union” (Simon & Schuster, 1997) and “Mommy’s Little
Girl: On Sex, Motherhood, Porn and Cherry Pie” (Thunder’s
Mouth Press, 2003) �" proudly on his shelves at home.