R. L. Trask | |
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| Born | Robert Lawrence Trask (1944-11-10)10 November 1944 Olean, New York, U.S. |
| Died | 27 March 2004(2004-03-27) (aged 59) Brighton, England |
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| Academic background | |
| Education |
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| Thesis | Synchronic and Diachronic Studies in the Grammar of Basque (1984) |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles Ernest Bazell |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Linguist |
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| Main interests | |
| Website | The Larry Trask Archive |
Robert Lawrence Trask (10 November 1944 – 27 March 2004) was an American-British professor oflinguistics at theUniversity of Sussex, and an authority on theBasque language and the field ofhistorical linguistics.
Trask was born on 10 November 1944 inOlean, New York. He studiedchemistry atRensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the United States, and received his first degree. He got a master's degree fromBrandeis University before joining thePeace Corps.[1] In the Peace Corps, he taught at theMiddle East Technical University in Ankara before leaving the country in 1970. He later received hisdoctorate in linguistics from theUniversity of London, and afterwards taught at various universities in theUnited Kingdom. He became a professor of linguistics at the University of Sussex.[2]
He was considered an authority on the Basque language. His bookThe History of Basque (1997) is considered an essential reference on diachronic Basque linguistics and a standard introduction to Basque linguistics. At the time of his death, he was attempting to compile anetymological dictionary of the Basque language; the unfinished work was posthumously published on the Internet byMax W. Wheeler.[3]
Trask was also an authority onhistorical linguistics, and had written about the problem of theorigin of language. He published two introductory books to linguistics:Language: The basics (1995)[4] andIntroducing Linguistics (coauthored with Bill Mayblin) (2000), and several dictionaries on different topics of this science:A dictionary of grammatical terms in linguistics (1993),A dictionary of phonetics and phonology (1996),A student's dictionary of language and linguistics (1997),Key concepts in language and linguistics (1999),The dictionary of historical and comparative linguistics (2000)[2] andThe Penguin dictionary of English grammar (2000).[5]
Trask died on 27 March 2004 as a result of complications fromamyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).[6] At the time of his death, afestschrift to honor him was in preparation.[7]
