Robert Blust

Robert A. Blust (/blʌst/;Chinese:白樂思;pinyin:Bái Lèsī; May 9, 1940 – January 5, 2022^[1]^[2]^[3]) was an Americanlinguist who worked in several areas, includinghistorical linguistics,lexicography andethnology. He was Professor of Linguistics at theUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Blust specialized in theAustronesian languages and made major contributions to the field of Austronesian linguistics.

Robert Blust

Blust in 2017

Born

Robert Andrew Blust

(1940-05-09)May 9, 1940

Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.

Died

January 5, 2022(2022-01-05) (aged 81)

Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.

Nationality

American

Other names

Bái Lèsī (白樂思)

Academic background

Education

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (BA,MA,PhD)

Thesis

The Proto-North Sarawak Vowel Deletion Hypothesis (1974)

Doctoral advisor

George W. Grace

Academic work

Institutions

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa,Leiden University

Notable students

K. Alexander Adelaar

Chinese name

Traditional Chinese

白樂思

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Bái Lèsī

Website

www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/blust/

Early life and career

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Blust was born inCincinnati, Ohio on May 9, 1940,^[4] and raised inCalifornia. He received both aBachelor of Arts inanthropology in 1967 and aPhD in linguistics in 1974 from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.^[5] He taught atLeiden University inthe Netherlands from 1976 to 1984, after which he returned to the Department of Linguistics at Mānoa for the rest of his career, serving as department chair from 2005 to 2008.^[4] He was a Fellow of theLinguistic Society of America.^[6]

Austronesian languages

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Until 2018, he served as the review editor forOceanic Linguistics, an academic journal that covers theAustronesian languages. Blust is best known for his work on this large language family, including the comprehensiveAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (1995) and aThao-English dictionary (2003). Another one of his well-known works is a 2009 work calledThe Austronesian Languages, which is the first single-authored book to cover all aspects (phonology,syntax,morphology,sound changes,classification, etc.) of the Austronesian language family in its entirety.

Field work

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As part of his field work, Blust studied 97 Austronesian languages spoken in locations such asSarawak,Papua New Guinea, andTaiwan. In Taiwan, he performed field work onFormosan languages such asThao,Kavalan,Pazeh,Amis,Paiwan andSaisiyat. His dictionary of the highly endangered Thao language, at over 1100 pages, is one of the most complete ever compiled for a Formosan language. Blust also had an abiding research interest in both linguistic and cultural aspects ofrainbows and dragons.

Personal life and death

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Blust died inHonolulu, Hawaii, on January 5, 2022, at the age of 81, after a 13-year battle with cancer.^[2]

Selected publications

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Blust, Robert (1974).The Proto-North-Sarawak vowel deletion hypothesis (PhD). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Blust, Robert (1977). "The Proto-Austronesian pronouns and Austronesian subgrouping: a preliminary report".University of Hawaiʻi Working Papers in Linguistics.9 (2):1–15.
Blust, Robert (1988).Austronesian Root Theory: An Essay on the Limits of Morphology. John Benjamins Publishing.ISBN 90-272-3020-X.
Blust, Robert (1993). "*s metathesis and the Formosan/Malayo-Polynesian language boundary". In Dahl, Øyvind (ed.).Language, a Doorway Between Human Cultures: Tributes to Dr. Otto Chr. Dahl on His Ninetieth Birthday. Novus Forlag.ISBN 978-82-7099-205-8.
Blust, Robert (1995). "The position of the Formosan languages: method and theory in Austronesian comparative linguistics". InLi, Paul Jen-kuei; Tsang, Cheng-hwa; Huang, Ying-kuei; Ho, Dah-an; Tseng, Chiu-yu (eds.).Austronesian Studies Relating to Taiwan. Symposium Series of the Institute of History and Philology. Vol. 3. Taipei: Academia Sinica. pp. 585–650.
Blust, Robert (December 1996). "Some Remarks on the Linguistic Position of Thao".Oceanic Linguistics.35 (2). University of Hawaiʻi Press:272–294.doi:10.2307/3623175.JSTOR 3623175.
Blust, Robert (1999). "Notes on Pazeh Phonology and Morphology".Oceanic Linguistics.38 (2). University of Hawaiʻi Press:321–365.doi:10.2307/3623296.JSTOR 3623296.
Blust, Robert (2003). "Three Notes on Early Austronesian Morphology".Oceanic Linguistics.42 (2). University of Hawaiʻi Press:438–478.doi:10.2307/3623246.JSTOR 3623246.
Blust, Robert (2003).Thao Dictionary(PDF). Language and Linguistics, Monograph Series A5. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics (Preparatory Office), Academia Sinica.ISBN 978-957-01-4785-8. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on January 21, 2022.
Blust, Robert (2003).A short morphology, phonology and vocabulary of Kiput, Sarawak. Shorter Grammars. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.doi:10.15144/PL-546.hdl:1885/146714.ISBN 0858835363.
Blust, Robert A. (2005). "Must sound change be linguistically motivated?".Diachronica.22 (2). John Benjamins:219–269.doi:10.1075/dia.22.2.02blu.ISSN 1569-9714.
Blust, Robert (2006). "The Origin of the Kelabit Voiced Aspirates: A Historical Hypothesis Revisited".Oceanic Linguistics.45 (2). University of Hawaiʻi Press:311–338.doi:10.1353/ol.2007.0001.JSTOR 4499967.S2CID 145261116.
Blust, Robert (2009).The Austronesian languages. Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.ISBN 978-0-85883-602-0.
Blust, Robert; Trussel, Stephen."The Austronesian Comparative Dictionary".
Blust, Robert (2023).The Dragon and the Rainbow: Man's Oldest Story. Brill, Leiden.ISBN 978-90-04-67829-3.

References

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^Lobel, Jason William (2022)."In Memoriam: Dr. Robert A. Blust, 1940–2022". Obituary.Language and Linguistics.23 (2):141–146.doi:10.1075/lali.00116.lob.
^^a ^bLobel, Jason William, Victoria Chen and Lani Blust-Char (2022). "In Memoriam: Robert A. Blust, 1940–2022".Oceanic Linguistics.61 (2):614–649.doi:10.1353/ol.2022.0010.S2CID 250269537.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"Editorial".Language & Linguistics in Melanesia.40. Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea. January 7, 2022.ISSN 0023-1959.
^^a ^bAdelaar, Alexander;Pawley, Andrew, eds. (2009). "Reflections on Bob Blust's career".Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: a festschrift for Robert Blust. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. p. 3.doi:10.15144/PL-601 (inactive November 1, 2024).hdl:1885/34582.ISBN 9780858836013.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
^"About".Robert Blust. RetrievedJanuary 11, 2021.
^"LSA Fellows by Name".Linguistic Society of America. Archived fromthe original on July 6, 2020.

Zeitoun, Elizabeth (2007)."Three Western scholars' contributions to Formosan linguistics"(PDF).The International Conference for the 100th anniversary of linguistics in Taiwan: In honor of the linguistics pioneer Professor Naoyosi Ogawa. National Taichung University of Education. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on May 24, 2011. RetrievedFebruary 18, 2022.
"Robert A. Blust".University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Linguistics Department. Archived fromthe original on January 6, 2022. RetrievedFebruary 18, 2022.
Townsend, Bethany."Robert Blust". Linguist of the Day.LinguistList. Archived fromthe original on December 21, 2013.
"Dictionary of Taiwan Aboriginal History, Language and Culture" (in Chinese). Archived fromthe original on May 13, 2021.
Chen, Victoria (February 21, 2022)."In Memoriam: Dr. Robert A. Blust, 1940–2022".Taiwan Insight.