Mary Haas

Mary Haas loved how people talk. She studied many ways to talk. She went to many new places. She worked with people to learn their words. This helped her save old ways of talking.

She studied the Tunica language. She also studied the Thai language. She made a book for Thai words. People still use it today.

Mary taught many students at a big school. She helped them learn how to study speech. She led a group to save local languages.

She won many big prizes for her work. She was a leader for a group of speech experts. Her work was very important.

She was a great teacher and a smart leader.

Mary Haas was a smart woman who studied language. We call people who study language linguists. She wanted to learn how people speak. She traveled to study many different ways of talking.

Mary worked hard to save languages that were fading. She studied the Tunica language in the 1930s. She worked with Sesostrie Youchigant to learn it. She also studied the Natchez language. She worked with Watt Sam and Nancy Raven. Her notes are a key way to learn Natchez today.

Mary also studied the Thai language. During World War II, she helped teach Thai at Berkeley. She made a Thai-English dictionary in 1964. People still use her book today.

Mary was a great teacher. She helped more than 100 students finish their high studies. She also led a group to study Indian languages in California. This group was the Survey of California Indian Languages. She led it from 1953 to 1977.

She won many big honors. She was the president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her work helped the whole world understand speech.

Mary Rosamond Haas was a dedicated American linguist. Linguists are people who study how languages work. She spent her life exploring many different ways of speaking. Her work focused on North American indigenous languages and Thai. She also studied historical linguistics, which looks at how languages change over time. Because of her hard work, she became a leader in her field. She served as the president of the Linguistic Society of America in 1963.

Mary used a method called fieldwork to learn new languages. This means she traveled to meet people who spoke them. During the 1930s, she worked with Sesostrie Youchigant to study Tunica. She also worked with Watt Sam and Nancy Raven. They were the last two native speakers of the Natchez language in Oklahoma. Her careful notes are still the most reliable source for Natchez today. She also collected many texts for the Muskogee language.

Her journey began in Richmond, Indiana. She went to high school and Earlham College there. Later, she studied at the University of Chicago. She studied under a famous scholar named Edward Sapir. She then moved to Yale University to finish her PhD. She completed her degree in 1935 at the age of 25. Her dissertation was about the grammar of the Tunica language.

Mary spent much of her career at the University of California, Berkeley. She helped start the Department of Linguistics there in 1953. She also led the Survey of California Indian Languages for many years. She served as the director of that survey from 1953 to 1977. During World War II, she developed a program to teach Thai. In 1964, she published a Thai-English student's dictionary. People still use her dictionary to this day.

Mary was a very important teacher for other scientists. She supervised fieldwork for more than 100 doctoral students. Many of her students became famous linguists themselves. She helped them study languages like Karok, Maidu, and Wiyot. Her many honors included being a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. She also received honorary doctorates from several large universities. Her life shows how studying words can help preserve history.

Mary Rosamond Haas was a highly influential American linguist. Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure. Haas specialized in North American indigenous languages and the Thai language. She was also an expert in historical linguistics, which examines how languages change over time. Her work was vital for preserving languages that were in danger of disappearing. Because of her immense contributions, she served as the president of the Linguistic Society of America in 1963.

Haas utilized a primary research method known as fieldwork. Fieldwork involves traveling to specific locations to study languages directly from native speakers. During the 1930s, she worked closely with Sesostrie Youchigant to document the Tunica language. She also performed critical fieldwork with Watt Sam and Nancy Raven. They were the final two native speakers of the Natchez language in Oklahoma. Her extensive, unpublished field notes remain the most reliable source of information for the now extinct Natchez language.

Her academic training provided a strong foundation for her research career. She began her graduate studies in comparative philology at the University of Chicago. There, she studied under the renowned linguist Edward Sapir. She later followed Sapir to Yale University to continue her advanced education. In 1935, at age 25, she earned her PhD from Yale. Her dissertation focused on the complex grammar of the Tunica language.

Haas spent a significant portion of her professional life at the University of California, Berkeley. During World War II, she developed a Thai language program for the Army Specialized Training Program. This was because the United States government viewed Southeast Asian language skills as essential for the war effort. In 1948, she became an assistant professor in the Department of Oriental Languages. She later became a founding member of the Berkeley Department of Linguistics in 1953.

As a leader at Berkeley, Haas held several important administrative roles. She served as a long-term chair of the linguistics department. From 1953 to 1977, she directed the Survey of California Indian Languages. In this role, she provided guidance for many important linguistic studies. She also published the authoritative Thai-English Students' Dictionary in 1964. This resource is so effective that it remains in use by students today.

Haas was perhaps most impactful through her dedication to teaching and mentorship. She supervised fieldwork for more than 100 doctoral students. This number is notable because her student, Karl V. Teeter, noted she trained more Americanist linguists than Edward Sapir and Franz Boas combined. She advised nearly 50 dissertations through her work with the Survey of California Indian Languages. Many of her students, such as William Bright and Catherine Callaghan, became highly influential scholars in their own right.

Her career was marked by numerous prestigious honors and recognitions. In 1964, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974. In 1978, she achieved membership in the National Academy of Sciences. Additionally, she received honorary doctorates from Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Earlham College, and Ohio State University. Her life's work helped bridge the gap between different cultures through the study of their spoken words.