Michael Fortescue

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Michael David Fortescue
Born (1946-08-08) 8 August 1946 (age 77)
United Kingdom
OccupationLinguist

Michael David Fortescue (born 8 August 1946, Thornbury [1] ) is a British-born [2] linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi and Nitinaht.

Contents

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. [1] [3] He finished school at Abingdon School in 1963. [4] 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. [3] He took a PhD in Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh 1975-1978 [5] with the thesis Procedural discourse generation model for 'Twenty Questions'. [6] 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. [3] He became professor in linguistics in 1999, and retired in 2011. [2]

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, [1] where he was elected an associate of St Hugh's College. [7] An edited book was published as a festschrift in his honour in 2017. [8] In 2019, he was elected to Academia Europaea. [7]

He was chairman of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen 2005-2011. [2]

Selected works

His Comparative Eskimo Dictionary, co-authored with Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan, [9] is the standard work in its area, as is his Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary. [10] In his book Pattern and Process, [11] Fortescue explores the possibilities of a linguistic theory based on the philosophical theories of Alfred North Whitehead. [12] [13] [ better source needed ]

A more complete listing is available in the Festschrift in his honor. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eskimo</span> Exonym used to describe Indigenous people from the circumpolar region

Eskimo is an exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit and the Yupik of eastern Siberia and Alaska. A related third group, the Aleut, who inhabit the Aleutian Islands, are generally excluded from the definition of Eskimo. The three groups share a relatively recent common ancestor, and speak related languages belonging to the family of Eskaleut languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yupik peoples</span> Indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Russian Far East

The Yupik are a group of Indigenous or Aboriginal peoples of western, southwestern, and southcentral Alaska and the Russian Far East. They are related to the Inuit and Iñupiat. Yupik peoples include the following:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eskaleut languages</span> Language family of the Arctic and sub-Arctic

The Eskaleut, Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent, and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of what are now the United States (Alaska); Canada including Nunavut, Northwest Territories, northern Quebec (Nunavik), and northern Labrador (Nunatsiavut); Greenland; and the Russian Far East. The language family is also known as Eskaleutian, Eskaleutic or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleo-Siberian languages</span> Group of languages in Siberia

The Paleo-Siberian languages are several language isolates and small language families spoken in parts of Siberia. They are not known to have any genetic relationship to each other; their only common link is that they are held to have antedated the more dominant languages, particularly Tungusic and latterly Turkic languages, that have largely displaced them. Even more recently, Turkic and especially Tungusic have been displaced in their turn by Russian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages</span> Endangered language family of the Russian Far East

The Chukotko-Kamchatkan or Chukchi–Kamchatkan languages are a language family of extreme northeastern Siberia. Its speakers traditionally were indigenous hunter-gatherers and reindeer-herders. Chukotko-Kamchatkan is endangered. The Kamchatkan branch is moribund, represented only by Western Itelmen, with only 4 or 5 elderly speakers left. The Chukotkan branch had close to 7,000 speakers left, with a reported total ethnic population of 25,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasiatic languages</span> Proposed language macrofamily

Eurasiatic is a hypothetical and controversial language macrofamily proposal that would include many language families historically spoken in northern, western, and southern Eurasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uralo-Siberian languages</span> Proposed language family including Uralic, Yukaghir, Eskimo–Aleut and possibly Nivkh

Uralo-Siberian is a hypothetical language family consisting of Uralic, Yukaghir, and Eskaleut. It was proposed in 1998 by Michael Fortescue, an expert in Eskaleut and Chukotko-Kamchatkan, in his book Language Relations across Bering Strait. Some have attempted to include Nivkh in Uralo-Siberian. Until 2011, it also included Chukotko-Kamchatkan. However, after 2011 Fortescue only included Uralic, Yukaghir and Eskaleut in the theory, although he argued that Uralo-Siberian languages have influenced Chukotko-Kamchatkan.

The claim that Eskimo words for snow are unusually numerous, particularly in contrast to English, is a cliché commonly used to support the controversial linguistic relativity hypothesis. In linguistic terminology, the relevant languages are the Eskimo–Aleut languages, specifically the Yupik and Inuit varieties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Itelmen language</span> Chukotko-Kamchatkan language of Kamchatka Krai, Russia

Itelmen or Western Itelmen, formerly known as Western Kamchadal, is a language of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family spoken on the western coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Fewer than a hundred native speakers, mostly elderly, in a few settlements in the southwest of Koryak Autonomous Okrug, remained in 1993. The 2021 Census counted 2,596 ethnic Itelmens, virtually all of whom are now monolingual in Russian. However, there are attempts to revive the language, and it is being taught in a number of schools in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naukan Yupik language</span> Eskimo–Aleut language spoken in Russia

Naukan Yupik language or Naukan Siberian Yupik language is a critically endangered Eskimo language spoken by c. 70 Naukan persons (нывуӄаӷмит) on the Chukotka peninsula. It is one of the four Yupik languages, along with Central Siberian Yupik, Central Alaskan Yup'ik and Pacific Gulf Yupik.

Mosan is a hypothetical language family consisting of the Salishan, Wakashan, and Chimakuan languages of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It was proposed by Edward Sapir in 1929 in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Little evidence has been adduced in favor of such a grouping, no progress has been made in reconstructing it, and it is now thought to reflect a language area rather than a genetic relationship. The term persists outside academic linguistic literature because of Sapir's stature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chukotkan languages</span> Dialect cluster of Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages of northeast Russia

Chukotkan is a dialect cluster that forms one branch of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family. It is spoken in two autonomous regions at the extreme northeast of Russia, bounded on the east by the Pacific and on the north by the Arctic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamchatkan languages</span> Branch of Chukotko-Kamchatkan containing Itelmen

Kamchatkan (Kamchatic) is a former dialect cluster spoken on the Kamchatka Peninsula. It now consists of a single language, Western Itelmen. It had 100 or fewer speakers in 1991, mostly of the older generation. The Russian census of 2010 still reported 80 speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuktun</span> Inuit language of northwestern Greenland

Inuktun is the language of approximately 1,000 indigenous Inughuit, inhabiting the world's northernmost settlements in Qaanaaq and the surrounding villages in northwestern Greenland.

Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages. It is purported to have broken up into the Northern (Chukotian) and Southern (Itelmen) branches around 2000 BCE, when western reindeer herders moved into the Chukotko-Kamchatkans' homeland and its inland people adopted the new lifestyle.

Proto-Eskaleut, Proto-Eskimo–Aleut or Proto-Inuit-Yupik-Unangan is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Eskaleut languages, family containing Eskimo and Aleut. Its existence is known through similarities in Eskimo and Aleut. The existence of Proto-Eskaleut is generally accepted among linguists. It was for a long time true that no linguistic reconstruction of Proto-Eskaleut had yet been produced, as stated by Bomhard (2008:209). Such a reconstruction was offered by Knut Bergsland in 1986. Michael Fortescue (1998:124–125) has offered another version of this system, largely based on the reconstruction of Proto-Eskimo in the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary he co-authored with Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan (1994:xi).

Proto-Eskimoan, Proto-Eskimo, or Proto-Inuit-Yupik, is the reconstructed ancestor of the Eskimo languages. It was spoken by the ancestors of the Yupik and Inuit peoples. It is linguistically related to the Aleut language, and both descend from the Proto-Eskaleut language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eskimo–Uralic languages</span> Proposed language family including Uralic and Eskaleut languages

The Eskimo–Uralic hypothesis posits that the Uralic and Eskimo–Aleut language families belong to a common macrofamily. It is not generally accepted by linguists because the similarities can also be merely areal features, common to unrelated language families. In 1818, the Danish linguist Rasmus Rask grouped together the languages of Greenlandic and Finnish. The Eskimo–Uralic hypothesis was put forward by Knut Bergsland in 1959. Ante Aikio stated that it's possible that there exists some connection between the two families, but exact conclusions can't be drawn and the similarities could exist by loaning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eskimology</span> Complex of humanities sciences relating to Eskimos

Eskimology or Inuitology is a complex of humanities and sciences studying the languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of the speakers of Eskimo–Aleut languages and Inuit, Yupik and Aleut, sometimes collectively known as Eskimos, in historical and comparative context. This includes ethnic groups from the Chukchi Peninsula on the far eastern tip of Siberia in Russia, through Alaska of the United States, Canada's Inuit Nunangat, including the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut Nunavik and Nunatsiavut, through NunatuKavut, to Greenland of Denmark. Originally, an Eskimologist or Inuitologist was primarily a linguist or philologist who researches Eskimo or Inuit languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric languages</span> Hypothetical language family including Nivkh and Chukotko-Kamchatkan

The Chukotko-Kamchatko-Amuric or Chukotko-Kamchatkan-Amuric languages form a hypothetical language family including Nivkh and Chukotko-Kamchatkan. A relationship between these two language groups was proposed by Michael Fortescue in a 2011 paper. He theorized that their common ancestor might have been spoken around 4000 years ago. However Glottolog says that the evidence is insufficient to conclude a genealogical relationship between Nivkh and Chukotko-Kamchatkan.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Grove, Arnaq (2012). "Introduktion til festskrift i anledning af Michael Fortescues fratrædelse fra Københavns Universitet". Grønland. 60 (2): 80–83.
  2. 1 2 3 Riegels, Naja (30 January 2009). "Michael Fortescue". Den Store Danske (in Danish). Lex.dk. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 "Michael David Fortescue - Curriculum vitae - Staff". University of Copenhagen. 20 August 2022. Archived from the original on 20 August 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. ↑ "Valete Et Salvete" (PDF). The Abingdonian.
  5. ↑ "Michael Fortescue - Curriculum Vitae". www.ae-info.org. Academia Europaea. Retrieved 22 June 2024.
  6. ↑ Fortescue, Michael D. (1978). Procedural discourse generation model for 'Twenty Questions' (Ph.D. thesis). University of Edinburg. hdl: 1842/17443 .
  7. 1 2 "Academy of Europe: Fortescue Michael". www.ae-info.org. Retrieved 22 June 2024.
  8. 1 2 Kaplan, Lawrence D.; Berge, Anna, eds. (2017). "Publications on Indigenous Languages by Michael D. Fortescue". Studies in Inuit Linguistics. In Honor of Michael Fortescue. Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center. pp. 185–190. ISBN   978-1-55500-125-4.
  9. ↑ Reviews:
    • Bobaljik, Jonathan David (1998). "Review of Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates". Book Reviews. Anthropological Linguistics. 40 (3): 514–518. JSTOR   30028655.
    • Dorais, Louis-Jacques (2011). "Review of Comparative Eskimo Dictionary With Aleut Cognates, Second Edition". Book Reviews. Études/Inuit/Studies. 35 (1–2): 294. doi:10.7202/1012850ar.
  10. ↑ Reviews:
  11. ↑ Review:
    • Vajda, Edward J. (2003). "Review of Pattern and Process: A Whiteheadian Perspective on Linguistics". Book Notices. Language. 79 (3): 653. doi:10.1353/lan.2003.0194.
  12. ↑ "Michael David Fortescue – Københavns Universitet". Inss.ku.dk. 8 August 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  13. ↑ "Michael David Fortescue – University of Copenhagen". Research.ku.dk. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2010.



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