Max Mangold (German pronunciation:[ˈmaksˈmaŋɡɔlt];[1][2] 8 May 1922 – 3 February 2015) was aSwiss-German linguist and phonetician. He was born in the village ofPratteln nearBasel,Switzerland and taughtphonetics,phonology andlinguistic theory at theUniversity of the Saarland in Germany.[3] He producedphonetic notation for numerousreference works andpronunciation dictionaries,[4][5] among them theDuden dictionary of German pronunciation.[6] His many contributions toGerman phonology are seminal and comprehensive. He also oversaw scientific theses,dissertations (nearly 100 of them, many the first and only records of endangered languages) and other publications, for example ondialects in theSaarland[7] and theRhineland-Palatinate.
Mangold showed a strong interest in linguistic matters in his early years[8] and learned manylanguages, includingEsperanto, actively speaking nearly 40 languages in his prime.[9] The foreign language that he spoke best was probably Italian.
He studied inBasel,Geneva,Paris andLondon. His work afterward included service as aninterpreter for theUnited Nations from 1953–1954 during theKorean War for French, German, English, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Swedish and Chinese.[10] After receiving his doctorate underWalther von Wartburg andhabilitation in Basel in 1956,[11] he was appointed a full professor of phonetics at the University of the Saarland in Germany in 1957 after lecturing at universities in Basel,Zurich andBonn.
