Jaan Puhvel | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1932-01-24)24 January 1932 (age 93)[2] Tallinn, Estonia |
| Spouse | Madli Puhvel [et] |
| Awards | Order of the White Star, Third Class (2001) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Academic advisors | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Linguistics |
| Sub-discipline | |
| Institutions | |
| Notable students | |
| Main interests | |
| Notable works | Hittite Etymological Dictionary (1984–)[1] |
Jaan Puhvel (born 24 January 1932)[3] is anEstoniancomparative linguist andcomparative mythologist who specializes inIndo-European studies.
Born in Estonia, Puhvel fled his country with his family in 1944 following theSoviet occupation of the Baltic states, and eventually ended up inCanada. Gaining hisPh.D. incomparative linguistics atHarvard University, he became a professor ofclassical languages,Indo-European studies andHittite at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he founded the Center for the Study of ComparativeFolklore andMythology and was Chairman of the Department ofClassics.
Puhvel is the founder of theHittite Etymological Dictionary, and the author and editor of several works onProto-Indo-European mythology andProto-Indo-European society.
Jaan Puhvel was born inTallinn, Estonia on 24 January 1932, the son ofKarl Puhvel [et] and Meta Elisabeth Paern.[4] His father, acivil engineer by profession, was a forest manager working for the Estonian government. Jaan received his earliest education inAegviidu and at theJakob Westholm Gymnasium [et].[5] In April 1944, following theSoviet occupation of the Baltic states, the family emigrated to Finland. The following autumn they moved to Sweden.[6][5] While a high school student in Sweden, Puhvel decided that he wanted to become a scholar inIndo-European linguistics.[1]
Puhvel graduated from high school in Sweden in 1949, and his family subsequently emigrated to Canada. He studiedLatin,French andAncient Greek atMcGill University, where he graduated with anMA incomparative linguistics in 1952, for which he earned theGovernor General's Gold Medal.[4]
With a scholarship from the Canadian government, Puhvel went to study atHarvard University, where he was elected a Member of theHarvard Society of Fellows in 1953. From 1954 to 1955, he studied atSorbonne University in Paris, France, and atUppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. In Paris, his teachers included the linguistsÉmile Benveniste,Georges Dumézil,Pierre Chantraine andMichel Lejeune, and the philologistAlfred Ernout, while at Uppsala, philologistStig Wikander was among his teachers.[6] He subsequently lectured on theclassics at McGill, Harvard andUniversity of Texas at Austin. Puhvel gained hisPhD in comparative linguistics at Harvard University in 1959 with adissertation on thelaryngeal theory. It was later published asLaryngeals and the Indo-European Verb (1960).[6][5]
Puhvel taughtclassical languages and comparative Indo-European linguistics at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1958. In 1965, he was appointed Professor of Indo-European Studies there.[4][6][5] Puhvel founded the Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology at UCLA in 1961. At UCLA, he was Director of the Center for Research in Languages and Linguistics (1962–1967), Vice Chairman of Indo-European Studies (1964–1968), and Chairman of the Department of Classics (1968–1975).[4] Prominent students of Puhvel at UCLA include anthropologistC. Scott Littleton and folkloristDonald J. Ward.[6]
Puhvel was President of theAssociation for the Advancement of Baltic Studies from 1971 to 1972. He is a member of many other scholarly organizations, including theLinguistic Society of America, theAmerican Oriental Society and theAmerican Philological Association. Puhvel has been a Fellow of theAmerican Council of Learned Societies (1961–1962), and aGuggenheim Fellow (1968–1969).[4] He became an Officer First Class of theOrder of the White Rose of Finland in 1967.[4] Puhvel is the creator of theHittite Etymological Dictionary (1984–), which as of 2020 has been published in ten volumes. This project is the culmination of more than a half a century of work by Puhvel.[1] Since volume 5 (2001), it complements theChicago Hittite Dictionary, which began in 1980.
Puhvel has retired from UCLA as Professor Emeritus of Classical Linguistics, Indo-European Studies and Hittite.[7] He was a visiting professor at theUniversity of Tartu from 1993 to 1999.[1][8]Studies in Honor of Jaan Puhvel (1997), afestschrift in his honor, was published in two parts by theInstitute for the Study of Man. Puhvel received the EstonianOrder of the White Star, Third Class in 2001.[9] He took part in the editing process ofGilgamesh when the translation into Estonian was being prepared.[10]
The Estonian poetKaarel Kressa [et] has characterized Puhvel as one of the world's most prominentHittitologists, and one of the foremostEstonian scholars.[1]
Puhvel married EstonianmicrobiologistMadli Puhvel [et] on 4 June 1960, with whom he has three children.[4] He is the brother of philologistMartin Puhvel.[5] He resides inEncino, Los Angeles,[4] but spends every summer at the restored family farm inKõrvemaa, Estonia.[1]
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