Jerry Norman
Born	(1936-07-16)July 16, 1936 Watsonville, California, U.S.
Died	July 7, 2012(2012-07-07) (aged 75) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Academic background
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley (BA,MA,PhD)
Thesis	The Kienyang Dialect of Fukien (1969)
Academic advisor	Y. R. Chao
Academic work
Discipline	Linguistics
Institutions	Princeton University University of Washington
Notable students	W. South Coblin
Main interests	Min Chinese Manchu language
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	羅杰瑞
Simplified Chinese	罗杰瑞
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Luó Jiéruì Gwoyeu Romatzyh Luo Jyeruey Wade–Giles Luo Chieh-jui Southern Min HokkienPOJ Lô Kia̍t-suī Eastern Min FuzhouBUC Lò̤ giĕk sôi
Manchu name
Manchu script	ᡝᠯᠪᡳᡥᡝ

Jerry Lee Norman (July 16, 1936 – July 7, 2012) was an Americansinologist andlinguist known for his studies ofvarieties of Chinese, particularlyMin varieties, and also of theManchu language. Norman had a large impact on Chinese linguistics, and was largely responsible for establishing the importance of Min varieties in the reconstruction ofOld Chinese.^[1]

Jerry Norman was born on July 16, 1936, inWatsonville, California. His family were migrant farmers who had fled theDust Bowl conditions ofOklahoma in the mid-1930s.^[2] Norman entered theUniversity of Chicago in the autumn of 1954 andmajored inRussian, but was forced to withdraw after two years because of financial problems.^[3] He was briefly aCatholic novitiate, then joined theU.S. Army and began studying at theDefense Language Institute Foreign Language Center inMonterey, California, where he was first introduced to theChinese language.^[3]

After completing his military service, Norman enrolled at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, graduating with aB.A. in 1961.^[3] He then continued at Berkeley as a graduate student, studying Chinese under the prominent Chinese linguistY. R. Chao as well asManchu andMongolian under the American scholar James Bosson (1933–2016).^[3] He earned anM.A. in 1965, and after working with Chinese linguist Leo Chen on a glossary of theFuzhou dialect, in 1966 he joined the Chinese Linguistics Project atPrinceton University as a staff linguist.^[4] While at Princeton, Norman traveled toTaiwan to perform in field research onMin dialects spoken there by immigrants fromFujian Province, and in 1969 he received aPh.D. from Berkeley with a dissertation entitled "TheKienyang Dialect ofFukien".^[5]

Norman was promoted to assistant professor after completing his Ph.D. in 1969. While at Princeton, Norman met and married Stella Chen, and together they had four children. In 1972, Norman moved with his family toSeattle, Washington to join the faculty of the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at theUniversity of Washington, where he remained until his retirement in 1998. Norman's scholarship focused on the Min dialects of Chinese, and was largely responsible for its recognition as an important tool for reconstructing the phonology ofOld Chinese. He was a passionate student of Manchu history and literature, and was one of the last North American scholars to be fluent and literate in Manchu.

Norman was mentored in his early years byNicholas Bodman. He took part in the first meetings of theInternational Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, and was a regular participant in meetings of theYuen Ren Society.

He died ofidiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Seattle on July 7, 2012.^[6]

• Norman, Jerry (1969), "The Kienyang Dialect of Fukien" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley).
• ––– 1973. "Tonal Development in Min";Journal of Chinese Linguistics 1–2: 222–238.
• ––– 1974. "The Initials of Proto-Min";Journal of Chinese Linguistics 2-1: 27–36.
• ––– 1974. "Structure of Sibe Morphology";Central Asian Journal.
• ––– 1976. WithMei Tsu-lin. "The Austroasiatics in Ancient South China: Some Lexical Evidence";Monumenta Serica32: 274–301,JSTOR 40726203.
• ––– 1978.A Concise Manchu-English Lexicon. University of Washington Press.ISBN 978-0-295-95574-2.
• ––– 1979. "Chronological Strata in the Min Dialects";Fangyan 方言 1979.4: 268–274.
• ––– 1980. "Yongan fanyan" 永安方言;Shumu Jikan 书目季刊 14–2: 113–165.
• ––– 1981. "The Proto-Min Finals"; 中央研究院国际汉学会议论文集 语言文字组: 35–73.
• ––– 1984. "Three Min Etymologies";Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 13–2: 175–189.doi:10.3406/clao.1984.1155.
• ––– 1986. "Min-Bei fangyan de di san tao qing saiyin he qing casaiyin 闽北方言的第三套清塞音和清擦塞音";Zhongguo Yuwen 中国语文 1986.1: 38–41.
• ––– 1988.Chinese. Cambridge University Press, 1988.ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.
• ––– 1991. "The Mǐn Dialects in Historical Perspective";Languages and Dialects of China, edited byWilliam S-Y. Wang, pp. 325–360. Published byJournal of Chinese Linguistics.JSTOR 23827042
• ––– 1995a."A Glossary of Herpyng Dialect";Yuen Ren Society Treasury of Chinese Dialect Data I: 107–126.
• ––– 1995b. WithW. South Coblin. "A New Approach to Chinese Historical Linguistics";Journal of the American Oriental Society 115–4: 576–584.
• ––– 1996."Tonal Development in the Jennchyan Dialect";Yuen Ren Society Treasury of Chinese Dialect Data II: 7–41.
• ––– 2000. WithGilbert L. Mattos. translation ofChinese Writing byQiu Xigui. Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.ISBN 978-1-55729-071-7
• ––– 2002."A Glossary of the Lianduentsuen Dialect";Treasury of Chinese Dialect Data: Short Chinese Dialect Reports 1: 339–394.
• ––– 2006. "Min Animal Body Parts";Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 1–1: 133–143.
• ––– 2007. "汉语方言田野调查与音韵学";Beijing Daxue Xuebao 北京大学学报 44.2: 91–94.
• ––– 2013.A Comprehensive Manchu-English Dictionary. Harvard University Asia Center.ISBN 978-0-674-07213-8
• ––– 2025. "Popular and Learnèd in Chinese Dialects".Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 35(2): 491-503.doi:10.1017/S1356186324000427;corrigendum published online 2026: 1-2.doi:10.1017/S1356186325101417

• 1936 births
• 2012 deaths
• Linguists from the United States
• American sinologists
• Manchurologists
• University of Washington faculty
• University of California, Berkeley alumni

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• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Chinese-language text
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