Mary Haas

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American linguist (1910–1996)

title: "Mary Haas" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1910-births", "1996-deaths", "american-women-linguists", "historical-linguists", "linguistic-society-of-america-presidents", "university-of-california,-berkeley-faculty", "yale-university-alumni", "university-of-chicago-alumni", "earlham-college-alumni", "fellows-of-the-american-academy-of-arts-and-sciences", "members-of-the-united-states-national-academy-of-sciences", "linguists-of-algic-languages", "linguists-of-siouan-languages", "linguists-of-muskogean-languages", "linguists-of-thai", "linguists-of-wakashan-languages", "people-from-richmond,-indiana", "20th-century-american-women-academics"] description: "American linguist (1910–1996)" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Haas" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American linguist (1910–1996) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox academic"]

FieldValue
nameMary Haas
imageMary Rosamund Haas.jpg
birth_date
birth_placeRichmond, Indiana
death_date
death_placeBerkeley, California
known_forTraining linguists; work in North American Indian languages; work in Thai, and historical linguistics.
spouse{{Plainlist
* {{marriageMorris Swadesh
* {{marriageHeng R. Subhanka
awardsHonorary doctorates from:
educationPhD in linguistics, Yale University, 1935
alma_mater{{Plainlist
thesis_titleA Grammar of the Tunica Language
thesis_year1935
doctoral_advisorEdward Sapir
disciplineLinguist
sub_disciplineHistorical linguistics, Language documentation
workplacesUniversity of California, Berkeley
main_interestsNative American languages, Thai
doctoral_studentsWilliam Bright, William Shipley, Karl Teeter, Catherine Callaghan, Margaret Langdon, Terrence Kaufman, Victor Golla, Marc Okrand, Sydney Lamb
::

| name = Mary Haas | image = Mary Rosamund Haas.jpg | birth_date = | birth_place = Richmond, Indiana | death_date = | death_place = Berkeley, California | known_for = Training linguists; work in North American Indian languages; work in Thai, and historical linguistics. | spouse = {{Plainlist|

| awards = Honorary doctorates from:

Mary Rosamond Haas ( ; January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American indigenous languages, Thai, and historical linguistics. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Early life and education

Haas was born in Richmond, Indiana. She attended high school and Earlham College in Richmond.

She completed her PhD in linguistics at Yale University in 1935 at the age of 25, with a dissertation titled A Grammar of the Tunica Language. In the 1930s, Haas worked with the last native speaker of Tunica, Sesostrie Youchigant, producing extensive texts and vocabularies.

Career and research

Early work in linguistics

Haas undertook graduate work on comparative philology at the University of Chicago. She studied under Edward Sapir, whom she later followed to Yale. She began a long career in linguistic fieldwork by studying various languages during the summer months.

Over the ten-year period from 1931 to 1941, Haas studied the Wakashan language Nitinat (Ditidaht), as well as a number of languages that were mainly originally spoken in the American Southeast: Tunica, Natchez, Muskogee (Creek), Koasati, Choctaw, Alabama, Cherokee and Hichiti. Her first published paper, A Visit to the Other World, a Nitinat Text, written in collaboration with Morris Swadesh, was published in 1933.

Shortly after, Haas conducted fieldwork with Watt Sam and Nancy Raven, the last two native speakers of the Natchez language in Oklahoma. Her extensive unpublished field notes have constituted the most reliable source of information on the now dead language. She conducted extensive fieldwork on the Muskogee language, and was the first modern linguist to collect extensive texts in the language. Her Muskogee texts were published after her death in a volume that was edited and translated by Jack B. Martin, Margaret McKane Mauldin, and Juanita McGirt.

Career at the University of California, Berkeley

During World War II, the United States government viewed the study and teaching of Southeast Asian languages as important to the war effort, and under the auspices of the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of California at Berkeley, Haas developed a program to teach the Thai language. Her authoritative Thai-English Students' Dictionary, published in 1964, is still in use.

In 1948, she was appointed assistant professor of Thai and Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley Department of Oriental Languages, an appointment she attributed to Peter A. Boodberg, whom she described as "ahead of his time in the way he treated women scholars—a scholar was a scholar in his book". She became one of the founding members of the UC-Berkeley Department of Linguistics when it was established in 1953. She was a long-term chair of the department, and she was Director of the Survey of California Indian Languages at Berkeley from 1953 to 1977. She retired from Berkeley in 1977 and in 1984 was elected a Berkeley Fellow.

Mary Haas died at her home in Berkeley, California, on May 17, 1996, at the age of 86.

Role in teaching

Haas was noted for her dedication to teaching linguistics, and to the role of the linguist in language instruction. Her student Karl V. Teeter pointed out in his obituary of Haas that she trained more Americanist linguists than her former instructors Edward Sapir and Franz Boas combined: she supervised fieldwork in Americanist linguistics by more than 100 doctoral students. As a founder and director of the Survey of California Indian Languages, she advised nearly fifty dissertations, including those of many linguists who were later influential in the field, including William Bright (Karok), William Shipley (Maidu), Robert Oswalt (Kashaya), Karl Teeter (Wiyot), Catherine Callaghan (Penutian), Margaret Langdon (Diegueño), Sally McLendon (Eastern Pomo), Victor Golla (Hupa), Wick Miller (Acoma), Marc Okrand (Mutsun), Kenneth Whistler (Proto-Wintun), Douglas Parks (Pawnee and Arikara), and William Jacobsen (Washo).

Awards and honors

In 1963, Haas served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974, and she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1978. She received honorary doctorates from Northwestern University in 1975, the University of Chicago in 1976, Earlham College, 1980, and the Ohio State University in 1980.

Selected publications

  • The Thai system of writing, 1943. American Council of Learned Societies.
  • Spoken Thai, 1945 [co-authored with Heng R. Subhanka]. Linguistic Society of America.
  • Thai reader, 1945, Berkeley.
  • Tunica texts, 1950. University of California publications in linguistics, 6.1. Berkeley: University of California Press. 173pp.
  • Thai vocabulary, 1955. American Council of Learned Societies.
  • The prehistory of languages, 1960. Mouton. [Reprint 2018]
  • Thai-English student's dictionary, 1964. Stanford University Press.
  • Language, culture, and history : essays, 1978. Stanford University Press.
  • Creek (Muskogee) texts, 2015. [co-authored with James H. Hill]. University of California Press.

References

References

  1. Pike, Kenneth L.. (1999). "Mary R. Haas: 1910–1996". National Academies Press.
  2. (1997). "Mary R. Haas". Language.
  3. Falk, Julia S.. (2005). "Encyclopedia of Linguistics". Fitzroy Dearborn.
  4. McLendon, S.. (1997). "Mary R. Haas: A Life in Linguistics". Anthropological Linguistics.
  5. Turner, Katherine. (Winter 1997). "Mary R. Haas: Teacher". Anthropological Linguistics.
  6. (1933). "A Visit to the Other World, a Nitinat Text (With Translation and Grammatical Analysis)". International Journal of American Linguistics.
  7. Kimball, Geoffrey. (2007). "The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Language". UNC Press.
  8. Haas, Mary R.. "Mary Rosamond Haas papers, ca. 1910-1996".
  9. "Haas/Hill texts - Muskogee (Seminole/Creek) Documentation Project". Muskogee (Seminole/Creek) Documentation Project.
  10. Haas, Mary R.. (2015). "Creek (Muskogee) Texts". University of California.
  11. James A. Matisoff. "Remembering Mary Haas' s Work on Thai".
  12. Shipley, William. (1988). "In Honour of Mary Haas: From the Haas Festival Conference on Native American Linguistics". Walter de Gruyter & Co.
  13. (June 1, 1964). "Thai-English Student's Dictionary". Stanford University Press.
  14. Falk, Julia S.. (2005). "Encyclopedia of Linguistics".
  15. Emeneau, M. B.. "Mary Haas and Berkeley Linguistics".
  16. Teeter, Karl. (August 31, 1996). "Mary Haas Obituary". Foundation for Endangered Languages.
  17. Shipley, William. (1988). "In Honour of Mary Haas". Walter de Gruyter & Co.
  18. "Presidents - Linguistic Society of America".
  19. "Mary R. Haas".
  20. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter H". American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  21. "Mary Haas". National Academy of Sciences.
  22. Mary Haas. "The Thai system of writing".
  23. "Spoken Thai".
  24. "Thai Reader".

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1910-births1996-deathsamerican-women-linguistshistorical-linguistslinguistic-society-of-america-presidentsuniversity-of-california,-berkeley-facultyyale-university-alumniuniversity-of-chicago-alumniearlham-college-alumnifellows-of-the-american-academy-of-arts-and-sciencesmembers-of-the-united-states-national-academy-of-scienceslinguists-of-algic-languageslinguists-of-siouan-languageslinguists-of-muskogean-languageslinguists-of-thailinguists-of-wakashan-languagespeople-from-richmond,-indiana20th-century-american-women-academics