Eric P. Hamp

Eric Pratt Hamp (November 16, 1920 – February 17, 2019) was an American linguist widely respected as a leading authority on Indo-European linguistics, with particular interests in Celtic languages and Albanian. Unlike many Indo-Europeanists, who work entirely on the basis of written materials, he conducted extensive fieldwork on lesser-known Indo-European languages and dialects, such as Albanian, Arbëresh and Arvanitika; Breton; Welsh; Irish; Resian and Scots Gaelic.

His wide-ranging interests also included American Indian languages. He served for many years as editor of the ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' and did field work on Quileute and Ojibwa. He also studied linguistic aspects of braille.

Hamp's scholarship was characterized by the densely argued, narrowly focused note, essay and review, generally consisting of a few pages. He wrote more than 3,500 articles and reviews, and nearly every important aspect of historical linguistics was dealt with, often multiple times, in Hamp's writings.

He was the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago and in spite of his advanced age, he continued to write, edit, speak and travel at select meetings and conferences, and was an Associate Editor of the journal ''Anthropological Linguistics''. He died in February 2019 at the age of 98. Provided by Wikipedia