Charles F. Voegelin Explained

Birth Date:14 January 1906
Birth Place:New York, U.S.
Other Names:Carl
Known For:Work on indigenous languages
Discipline:Linguist, anthropologist
Sub Discipline:Native American linguistics
Workplaces:Indiana University Bloomington

Charles Frederick "Carl" Voegelin (January 14, 1906 – May 22, 1986), often cited as C. F. Voegelin, was an American linguist and anthropologist. He was one of the leading authorities on Indigenous languages of North America, specifically the Algonquian and Uto-Aztecan languages. He published many influential works on Delaware, Shawnee, Hopi and the Tübatulabal languages.

Early life and education

Voegelin was born in New York City on January 14, 1906, and christened Charles Frederick Voegelin, but he became known as Carl.[1] [2]

He entered Stanford University and earned a BA in Psychology, after which he traveled to New Zealand to study Maori music. Then he decided to study anthropology at University of California, Berkeley where he was trained by Alfred Kroeber, Robert Lowie and Melville Jacobs, writing his dissertation as a grammar of Tübatulabal. At first he had great difficulties hearing the phonetic distinctions of the language, but in 1931 he went to the field with Danish linguist Hans Jørgen Uldall who taught him to recognize all the phonetic contrasts. His proficiency in Indigenous languages became so good that he was able to correspond with Leonard Bloomfield in Ojibwe, letters later published in the journal Anthropological Linguistics.[3]

Career

Vogelin went on to do postdoctoral work in linguistics at Yale University with Edward Sapir, and then he taught at DePauw University, before joining Indiana University Bloomington in 1941 as that university's first professor of anthropology.[4] During his tenure at Indiana he managed the United States' largest Army Specialized Training Program in foreign languages. In 1944, he persuaded Indiana University to host the International Journal of American Linguistics (IJAL), which had stopped being published in 1939, shortly before the death of its first editor Franz Boas.[5] Voegelin served as editor of IJAL for many years.

Among his graduate students at Indiana were Ken Hale and Dell Hymes. Later he held an appointment at the University of Hawaiʻi, before returning to Indiana as an emeritus professor.[6] [7]

Personal life

Voegelin was first married to ethnologist Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin, with whom he conducted fieldwork. Later he married linguist Florence M. Voegelin, an accomplished linguist in her own right. Together they co-authored numerous publications.[8]

He died on May 22, 1986.[9]

Honors

In 1947 Voegelin was Guggenheim Fellow at Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Anthropology.[2]

He became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1951.[2]

He was president of the Linguistic Society of America in 1954.[10]

In 1975, several of Voegelin's colleagues and former students collaborated on the festschrift Linguistics and Anthropology: In Honor of C. F. Voegelin.[11]

In 1983 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor of Humane Letters) by the University of Indiana at Bloomington, as well as a Distinguished Service Award of the American Anthropological Association.[2]

Voegelin's collected papers are held by the American Philosophical Society.[12] [13]

Selected publications

Notes and References

  1. Linguistics and Anthropology: In Honor of C. F. Voegelin. [by] M. Dale Kinkade, Kenneth L. Hale, Oswald Werner [Book review]]. Eric P. . Hamp . International Journal of American Linguistics. 48. 3. July 1982. 10.1086/465740. 327. 23 October 2020.
  2. Web site: Honoree: Search Awards: University Honors & Awards: Charles F. Voegelin. Indiana University. University Honors & Awards . 23 October 2020.
  3. Charles F. . Voegelin . Leonard . Bloomfield. Correspondence in Ojibwa. Anthropological Linguistics. 35. 1/4. A Retrospective of the Journal Anthropological Linguistics: Selected Papers', 1959-1985. 1993. 399–420.
  4. http://www.indiana.edu/~anthro/about/timeline.pdf Anthropology over time
  5. C. F. Voegelin. 1944. Continuation of International Journal of American Linguistics. International Journal of American Linguistics, Volume 10, Number 4 (October 1944), pages 109-112
  6. Ken Hale. 1976. Linguistic Autonomy and the Linguistics of Carl Voegelin. Anthropological Linguistics, Volume 18, Number 3 (March, 1976), pages 120-128
  7. Ken Hale. 1993. Linguistic Autonomy and the Linguistics of Carl Voegelin. Anthropological Linguistics, Volume 35, Number 1/4, A Retrospective of the Journal Anthropological Linguistics: Selected Papers, 1959-1985 (1993), pages 388-398
  8. Dorothea V. Kaschube. 1994. In Memoriam Florence Voegelin. International Journal of American Linguistics, Volume 60, Number 2 (April 1994), pages 191-196
  9. Web site: Voegelin, C. F. (Charles Frederick), 1906-1986 [LC authority record]]. Library of Congress LCCN Permalink . 17 January 1906 . 28 October 2020.
  10. http://lsadc.org/info/dec2001bltn/pres.htm LSA Presidents
  11. Book: Voegelin . C.F. . Kinkade . M.D. . M.D. Kinkade. Hale . K.L. . Kenneth L. Hale. Werner . O.. Oswald Werner . Linguistics and Anthropology: In Honor of C. F. Voegelin . John Benjamins Publishing Company . 1975 . 978-90-316-0079-3 . 23 October 2020.
  12. Web site: C. F. Voegelin Papers :Mss.Ms.Coll.68. American Philosophical Society Library . 23 October 2020.
  13. [M. Dale Kinkade]

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