Hans Kurath

Hans Kurath ( born December 13, 1891 in Villach, † January 2, 1992 in Ann Arbor ) was an American linguist of Austrian origin. He is best known as the author of the first American Sprachatlasses, the Linguistic Atlas of New England, as the initiator of the American Linguistic Atlas Project ( LAP) and the first main editor of the Middle English Dictionary.

Life

Kurath 1907 emigrated to the United States and became an American citizen in 1912. He studied at the Universities of Texas and Chicago. He completed his doctorate in 1920.

Subsequently, he taught as a professor of German at Northwestern University (1920-1927), then as Professor German and Linguistics at the Ohio State University ( 1927-31 ) and at Brown University ( 1931-1946 ). Eventually, he became a professor of English and linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor ( 1946-1962 ). In 1941 he was president of the Linguistic Society of America. In 1959 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Chicago.

Scientific interests

  • Lexicography
  • Dialectology
  • American English
  • Middle English Language

Works (selection)

  • Linguistic Atlas of New England, 3 vols. New York, 1939-43
  • Handbook of the Linguistic Geography of New England, Providence, 1939
  • A Word Geography of the Eastern United States, Ann Arbor, 1949
  • Main editor of the first volumes of the Middle English Dictionary, 1946-1962, Ann Arbor.
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