Henry Hoenigswald, 1915-2003

 

Linguists will be sorry to hear of the death on June 16 in Haverford, Pa. of Henry Hoenigswald, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. Henry Hoenigswald (1915-2003) was trained as a classicist and an Indo-Europeanist in Germany, Switzerland and Italy and taught most of his life at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked both in Indo-European and Classical linguistics and in the theory of historical linguistics, to which he contributed some of the first and most important attempts at formalization of the techniques of historical reconstruction and comparison. He was President of the LSA in 1958. Henry never stopped working and his last paper on a point of classical metre was written three weeks before his death. A number of students and colleagues owe him steady support and help which continued through all their career. He leaves two daughters.

Anna Morpurgo Davies, 18.6.2003


18.06.03