William Thalbitzer

{{Infobox person

| name = William Thalbitzer

| image =

| alt =

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| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{date|1873|02|05}}

| birth_place = Helsingør

| death_date = {{date|1958|09|18}}

| death_place = Usserød

| nationality = Danish

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| alma_mater = University of Copenhagen

| occupation = Philologist

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| spouse = {{marriage|Ellen Locher Thalbitzer|1905}}

| notable_works =

| awards = Loubat Prize

}}

{{Short description|Danish philologist and Eskimologist (1873–1958)}}

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William C. Thalbitzer (5 February 1873 in Helsingør – 18 September 1958 in Usserød) was a Danish philologist and professor of Eskimo studies at the University of Copenhagen. He studied Danish, English and Latin at the university, but after graduating in 1899 he decided to focus on "exotic" languages. In 1900 he spent a year in Ilulissat in western Greenland studying the Greenlandic language.{{cite journal | author = Erik Holtved | year = 1958 | title = William Thalbitzer 5. February 1873—18. September 1958 | journal = Geografisk Tidsskrift | volume = 57 | pages = VI–VII | url = http://www.tidsskrift.dk/visning.jsp?markup=&print=no&id=69799 | language = da | access-date = 2009-02-08 }} From 1905 to 1907 he with his wife spent eighteen months among the natives in Tasiilaq, one of the most isolated places on the coast of eastern Greenland.{{cite journal | date = March 17, 1907 | title = Studying a Disappearing Race in the Far North; Danish Ethnologist Returns from East Greenland After Spending Eighteen Months Among the Natives. | journal = The New York Times | pages = SM10 (Magazine Section) | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F06E3DB163EE233A25754C1A9659C946697D6CF | format = PDF}} In 1920 the University of Copenhagen established a permanent lecture position for Thalbitzer in "Greenlandic (Eskimo) language and culture".[http://eskimologi.ku.dk/upload/application/pdf/1f05d575/eskimologyandarcticstudies2007.pdf Eskimology and Arctic Studies] In 1952 he was made an honorary doctor at the University of Copenhagen.[http://www.litteraturpriser.dk/pris/drhcku.htm Æresdoktor ved Københavns Universitet]