Michael Fortescue

{{Infobox person

|name = Michael David Fortescue

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|birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1946|08|08}}

|birth_place = United Kingdom

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|occupation = Linguist

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Michael David Fortescue (born 8 August 1946, Thornbury) is a British-born linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi and Nitinaht.

Fortescue is known for his reconstructions of the Eskaleut, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Nivkh, and Wakashan proto-languages.

Biography

As a young teenager, Michael Fortescue and his family moved to California where he went to La Jolla High School 1956-1959. He finished school at Abingdon School in 1963.{{cite web|url=https://www.abingdon.org.uk/uploads/school/files/abingdonian/1963_January_V012_N007.pdf#page=11|title=Valete Et Salvete|publisher=The Abingdonian}} In 1966, he received a B.A. with "Honours with great Distinction" in Slavic languages and literatures from University of California, Berkeley, where he then taught Russian 1968-1970 and finished an M.A. in Slavic languages and literatures. In the years 1971-1975 he taught English for the International Language Centre in Osaka and the University of Aix/Marseille.{{cite web |title=Michael David Fortescue - Curriculum vitae - Staff |url=https://nors.ku.dk/english/staff/?pure=en%2Fpersons%2Fmichael-david-fortescue(4849f059-9eea-4c76-9fb0-a17c20f48d78)%2Fcv.html |publisher=University of Copenhagen |access-date=15 November 2023 |date=20 August 2022 |archive-date=20 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220820050223/https://nors.ku.dk/english/staff/?pure=en%2Fpersons%2Fmichael-david-fortescue(4849f059-9eea-4c76-9fb0-a17c20f48d78)%2Fcv.html |url-status=bot: unknown }} He took a PhD in Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh 1975-1978{{cite web |title=Michael Fortescue - Curriculum Vitae |url=https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Fortescue_Michael/CV |website=www.ae-info.org |publisher=Academia Europaea |access-date=22 June 2024}} with the thesis Procedural discourse generation model for 'Twenty Questions'.{{Cite thesis|first=Michael D.|last=Fortescue|date=1978|title=Procedural discourse generation model for 'Twenty Questions'|publisher=University of Edinburg |type=Ph.D. thesis|hdl=1842/17443|hdl-access=free}} With a Danish scholarship, he visited University of Copenhagen and did fieldwork in Greenland in 1978-79, and this research became supported from the Danish Research Council for the Humanities in the period 1979-1982. In 1984, he became associate professor in eskimology at the University of Copenhagen, and in 1989 docent. He became professor in linguistics in 1999, and retired in 2011.

On the occasion of his retirement in 2011, a special issue in the journal Grønland was published in 2012 as a festschrift. After retiring, he moved to England,{{cite journal | author-last=Grove|author-first = Arnaq| title=Introduktion til festskrift i anledning af Michael Fortescues fratrædelse fra Københavns Universitet |journal=Grønland |date=2012 |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=80–83}} where he was elected an associate of St Hugh's College. An edited book was published as a festschrift in his honour in 2017. In 2019, he was elected to Academia Europaea.{{cite web |title=Academy of Europe: Fortescue Michael |url=https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Fortescue_Michael |website=www.ae-info.org |access-date=22 June 2024}}

He was chairman of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen 2005-2011.{{cite web|url=https://denstoredanske.lex.dk/Michael_Fortescue |title=Michael Fortescue|last=Riegels|first=Naja |work= Den Store Danske |language=Danish |publisher=Lex.dk |date=2009-01-30 |accessdate=2023-11-15}}

Selected works

His Comparative Eskimo Dictionary, co-authored with Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan,Reviews:{{bulleted list|{{cite journal |last1=Bobaljik |first1=Jonathan David |title=Review of Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates |department=Book Reviews |journal=Anthropological Linguistics |date=1998 |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=514–518 |jstor=30028655 |ref=none}}|{{cite journal |last1=Dorais |first1=Louis-Jacques |title=Review of Comparative Eskimo Dictionary With Aleut Cognates, Second Edition |department=Book Reviews |journal=Études/Inuit/Studies |date=2011 |volume=35 |issue=1–2 |pages=294 |doi=10.7202/1012850ar |doi-access=|ref=none}}}} is the standard work in its area, as is his Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary.Reviews:{{bulleted list|{{cite journal |last1=Dunn |first1=Michael |title=Review of Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary |department=Book Reviews |journal=Anthropological Linguistics |date=2006 |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=296–299 |jstor=25132394 |ref=none}}|{{cite journal |last1=Jacobson |first1=Steven A. |title=Review of Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary |department=Book Reviews |journal=Études/Inuit/Studies |date=2005 |volume=29 |issue=1–2 |pages=356–360 |doi=10.7202/013954ar |doi-access=free |ref=none}}}} In his book Pattern and Process,Review:{{bulleted list|{{cite journal |last1=Vajda |first1=Edward J. |title=Review of Pattern and Process: A Whiteheadian Perspective on Linguistics |department=Book Notices |journal=Language |date=2003 |volume=79 |issue=3 |page=653 |doi=10.1353/lan.2003.0194 |ref=none}}}} Fortescue explores the possibilities of a linguistic theory based on the philosophical theories of Alfred North Whitehead.{{cite web|url=http://inss.ku.dk/ansatte/beskrivelse/?id=44519 |title=Michael David Fortescue – Københavns Universitet |publisher=Inss.ku.dk |date= 8 August 2007|accessdate=2010-01-25}}{{cite web |url=http://research.ku.dk/search/profil/?id=44519 |title=Michael David Fortescue – University of Copenhagen |publisher=Research.ku.dk |date= |accessdate=2010-01-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719125630/http://research.ku.dk/search/profil/?id=44519 |archive-date=2011-07-19 |url-status=dead }}{{Better source needed|Secondary sources should be used for this|date=November 2023}}

A more complete listing is available in the Festschrift in his honor.{{cite book |editor1-last=Kaplan |editor1-first=Lawrence D. |editor2-last=Berge |editor2-first=Anna |title=Studies in Inuit Linguistics. In Honor of Michael Fortescue |date=2017 |publisher=Alaska Native Language Center |location=Fairbanks, Alaska |isbn=978-1-55500-125-4 |pages=185–190 |chapter=Publications on Indigenous Languages by Michael D. Fortescue}}

1984. Some Problems Concerning the Correlation and Reconstruction of Eskimo and Aleut Mood Markers. Institut for Eskimologi, Københavns Universitet.
1990. From the Writings of the Greenlanders: Kalaallit Atuakklaannit. University of Alaska Press.
1991. Inuktun: An Introduction to the Language of Qaanaaq, Thule. Institut for eskimologis skriftrække, Københavns Universitet.
1992. Editor. Layered Structure and Reference in a Functional Perspective. John Benjamins Publishing Co.
1994. With Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan. Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates. Alaska Native Language Center.
1998. Language Relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence. London and New York: Cassell.
2001. Pattern and Process: A Whiteheadian Perspective on Linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing Co.
2002. The Domain of Language. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
2005. Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
2007. Comparative Wakashan Dictionary. Munich: LINCOM Europa.
2016. Comparative Nivkh Dictionary. Munich: LINCOM Europa.