Helma van den Berg
{{short description|Dutch linguist and Caucasologist (1965–2003)}}
{{Infobox academic
|image=Helma_van_den_Berg.jpg
|birth_name=Helma Everdina van den Berg
|birth_date={{Birth date|1965|05|26}}
|birth_place=Veenendaal, Netherlands
|death_date={{Death date and age|2003|11|11|1965|05|26}}
|death_place=Derbent, Dagestan, Russia
|occupation=Linguist, translator
|awards=VIDI Innovation Fellowship
|alma_mater=Leiden University
|discipline=Linguistics
|sub_discipline=Caucasian languages
|workplaces=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
}}
Helma Everdina van den Berg (May 26, 1965 – November 11, 2003) was a Dutch linguist specializing in Caucasian languages.
Life and work
Van den Berg was born and raised in Veenendaal, the Netherlands.{{Cite news|url=https://linguistlist.org/issues/14/14-3441/|title=LINGUIST List 14.3441: Obituary: Helma van den Berg|date=2003-12-12|work=The LINGUIST List|access-date=2018-09-25|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=http://email.eva.mpg.de/~vandenbe/Helma_van_den_Berg/messages2.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091102061202/http://email.eva.mpg.de/~vandenbe/Helma_van_den_Berg/messages2.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2009-11-02|title=Helma van den Berg|date=2009-11-02|access-date=2018-09-25}} She earned her PhD from Leiden University from 1983 to 1988. In addition to being a linguist, van den Berg was an accredited translator of Russian and Polish. After earning her doctorate, she remained in Leiden as research fellow from 1995 to 2000, studying the verbal morphology and syntax of Dargi, another East Caucasian language.
In 2000, Helma joined the Linguistics Department of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, where she became recognized as the resident specialist in Caucasian, especially Daghestanian, languages, some of which remain unwritten.
Van den Berg did field work on several under-documented East Caucasian languages, especially Hunzib and Dargi. She produced a Hunzib reference grammar and a collection of Dargi folktales with accompanying sketch grammar.
At the time of her death, van den Berg was working on a grammar of the Avar language. She had also just received a VIDI Innovation Fellowship from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, "which would have enabled her to set up her own research group to conduct research into Caucasian languages and to train a new generation of specialists in these languages during the period 2004–2009."{{Cite journal|last=Boeder|first=Winfried|last2=Comrie|first2=Bernard|last3=Hewitt|first3=George|date=January 2005|title=In memoriam Helma Everdina van den Berg (1965–2003)|journal=Lingua|volume=115|issue=1–2|pages=191–193|doi=10.1016/j.lingua.2004.01.009|issn=0024-3841|access-date=|doi-access=free}}
Her former colleagues have made an effort to bring van den Berg's research to print if it remained unpublished after her sudden death.
Personal life
Selected publications
Van den Berg published many papers, including{{Cite web |url=http://www.nplg.gov.ge/caucasia/Caucasology/Eng/2004/No5/Summary/23.htm |title=Announcement. Helma Van Den Berg (26.05.1965 – 11.11.2003) |website=www.nplg.gov.ge/caucasia |access-date=2025-01-17 |publisher=The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia}} Obituary with publication list for Van den Berg in the journal Caucasology 2004 No 5.
- {{Cite book |title=A grammar of Hunzib (with texts and lexicon) |first=Helma Everdina |last=van den Berg |date=1995 |location=Munchen |publisher=Lincom Europa |isbn=3-89586-006-9 |oclc=898928985 |series=LINCOM studies in Caucasian linguistics, 01}} Also Leiden University PhD thesis.
- {{Cite journal |title=Gender and person agreement in Akusha Dargi |first=H. |last=Van Den Berg |date= |journal=Folia Linguistica Historica |volume=33 |issue=1 December 2012 |pages=153-168 |oclc=827308065 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/flin.1999.33.1-2.153/pdf |doi=10.1515/flin.1999.33.1-2.153|url-access=subscription }}
- Dargi folktales. Oral stories from the Caucasus with an introduction to Dargi grammar. 2001. Leiden: Research School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies. ISBN 90-5789-066-6.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nplg.gov.ge/caucasia/Caucasology/Eng/2004/No5/Summary/24.htm |title=Review on the book of Helma van den Berg "Dargi folktales" (2001) |website=www.nplg.gov.ge/caucasia |access-date=2025-01-17 |publisher=The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia}} In the
journal Caucasology 2004 No 5.
- A Dargi electronic dictionary: the perspective of the linguist and the speakers. 2003. Международный симпозиум по полевой лингвистике. Тезисы докладов. Москва, сс. 8-9 [ International Symposium on Field Linguistics. Abstracts of papers. Moscow pp. 8-9].
- Spatial prefixes in Dargi (East Caucasian). Acta Linguistica Hungarica 50.1-2 (2003): 201-225.
- The east Caucasian language family. Lingua 115.1-2 (2005): 147-190.
References
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Category:Leiden University alumni
Category:Linguists of Caucasian languages
Category:People from Veenendaal
Category:20th-century Dutch women writers
Category:21st-century Dutch women writers
Category:20th-century Dutch translators
Category:21st-century Dutch translators