Karl Teeter Memorial
We are saddened to report the death of ELF board member Karl Teeter. Karl was a long-time supporter of the Fund and served on the Board of Directors since 1998.
Karl was Professor of Linguistics at Harvard from 1959 until 1989, and Professor Emeritus from his retirement until his death on April 20, 2007. He had a great love for languages, and he studied a dozen or more during his lifetime; he learned Japanese during his time stationed in Japan in the U.S. Army in the early 1950's, he worked for years on Maliseet-Passamaquoddy, and his work on the Wiyot language of Northern California was the focus of his career as a researcher. Karl worked closely with Della Prince, who was the last native speaker of Wiyot when she died in 1962. Karl's description of Wiyot continues to be the authoritative resource on the language, and his work has had lasting effects on the field descriptive linguistics.
One of Karl's most important contributions to the field of linguistics was to confirm the relationship between the Ritwan languages of Northern California, Wiyot and Yurok, and the dozens of Algonquian languages of the Northeastern United States and Canada. This work helped put an end to the long-unresolved “Ritwan” controversy and established the Algonquian and Ritwan languages as part of the larger Algic language family.
During his life, Karl published books on the Wiyot language, including the two-volume Wiyot Handbook (1993). This year, Philip LeSourd published Tales from Maliseet Country: The Maliseet Texts of Karl V. Teeter, a collection of stories that Karl collected from Maliseet speakers during the summer of 1963. Karl leaves behind a legacy of compassion and commitment to endangered languages, and we are fortunate to have had his inspiration and counsel here at the Endangered Language Fund over the last nine years. He will be sorely missed. Thanks to the ELF members who have made contributions in Karl's memory. If you would like to contribute to ELF in memory of Karl Teeter, please visit our How to Donate page.
Other tributes to Karl Teeter: