James A. Matisoff
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics
University of California
Berkeley
| Date of birth: July 14, 1937. Place of birth: Boston, Massachusetts. Family: Married, two children. |
| 1954-58 | Harvard College. A.B. 1958 [Romance Languages and Literatures (magna cum laude)] |
| 1958-59 | Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. A.M. 1959 [French Literature] |
| 1960-61 | International Christian University (Tokyo). [Japanese language] |
| 1961-62 | Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. [Linguistics] |
| 1962-67 | University of California, Berkeley. Ph.D. 1967. [Linguistics] |
| 1961-62 | Harvard University. Teaching Fellow, Romance Linguistics. |
| 1966-67 | Columbia University. Instructor, Linguistics. |
| 1967-70 | Columbia University. Assistant Professor, Linguistics. |
| 1970-74 | University of California, Berkeley. Associate Professor, Linguistics. |
| 1974- | University of California, Berkeley. Professor, Linguistics. |
| Jingpho (Kachin) 1962 | Burmese l962-63 | |
| Lahu 1965-6; 1970; 1977 | Cambodian 1969; 1986-7 | |
| Quechua 1970-1 | Vietnamese 1971-2; 1980-1 | |
| Angami Naga 1972-3; 1981-2 | Thai Lue 1973 | |
| Nepali 1973-4 | Sherpa 1975-6 | |
| Tagalog 1977-8 | Mien (Yao) 1979-80 | |
| Lotha Naga 1981-2 | Persian (Farsi) 1984 | |
| Hmong (Miao) 1984-5 | Kokborok (Tripuri) 1987-8 | |
| Kannada (Kanarese) 1989-90 | Lithuanian 1990-1 | |
| Irish 1991-2 | Uighur 1992-3 | |
| Armenian 1993-4 | Pumi [Yunnan] 1996 | |
| Lai Chin 1996-7 |
| 1959 | Official Guide, American National Exposition, Moscow. |
| 1959-60 | Sheldon Travelling Fellowship, Harvard University. |
| 1965-66 | Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, for dissertation research on Lahu in Thailand [15 months]. |
| 1970 | Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, for research on Lahu in Thailand [6 months]. |
| 1973 | Forum Lecturer, Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, Ann Arbor, Michigan. |
| 1976-77 | Senior Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, for research on Xixia with Professor Tatsuo NISHIDA, Kyoto University |
| 1976 | Travel Grant, American Council of Learned Societies, to attend Ninth International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Copenhagen. |
| 1978-79 | Guggenheim Fellowship, for preliminary work on the book Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia. |
| 1979 | Travel Grant, American Council of Learned Societies, to attend Twelfth International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Paris. |
| 1980-82 | Research Tools Preparation Grant [RT-0109-79-902], National Endowment for the Humanities, for preparation of semifinal manuscript of Lahu Dictionary. |
| 1981 | Distinguished Teaching Award for 1980-1, University of California, Berkeley [May]. |
| 1982-84 | Research Tools Preparation Grant [RT-20248-82], National Endowment for the Humanities, for preparation of final typescript of Lahu Dictionary. |
| 1982-83 | Humanities Research Fellowship, U.C.Berkeley, to supplement sabbatical leave. |
| 1983 | Fellow, U.S.-China Distinguished Scholar Exchange Program, Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China (CSCPRC), for lecture and research tour (Beijing, Chengdu, Kunming, Shanghai) [April-May]. |
| 1984 | U.C. Berkeley-Peking University Faculty Exchange Scholar, for lecture series at Peking University on Sino-Tibetan comparative-historical linguistics [May]. |
| 1985 | Directeur d'études associé, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Lecture series on Southeast Asian linguistics [June]. |
| 1985-88 | Research Tools Publication Grant [RT-20630-85], National Endowment for the Humanities, for preparation of camera-ready copy of Dictionary of Lahu. Renewed until April l987, and again until June l988. |
| 1987 | Travel grant from the National Museum of Ethnography, Osaka, to attend a Symposium on the linguistic affiliations of Japanese. |
| 1987-90 | Principal Investigator for a project entitled Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT). The first three-year period of this project was funded by grants from (a) the National Science Foundation [NSF Grant #BNS-8617726] and (b) the National Endowment for the Humanities [NEH Grant #RT-20789-87]. |
| 1988 | Senior Research Fellow, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan. July-August. |
| 1989 | Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, January-May, 1989. |
| 1989 | Directeur d'études associé, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. June. |
| 1990-92 | Renewal of grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, for 2 more years of work on the Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT) project. |
| 1992-95 | Renewal of grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, respectively for 3 more and 2 more years of work on the Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT) project. |
| 1993-present | Honorary Professorship, Central Institute of Nationalities (Zhongyang Minzu Xueyuan), Beijing. [Now called Central University of Nationalities (Zhongyang Minzu Daxue.] |
| 1994 | Honorable Visiting Fellow, National Science Council, Republic of China. For lectures at Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei. |
| 1995-98 | Renewal of grant from the National Science Foundation, for three more years of work on STEDT. |
| 1995-96 | Visiting Professor, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei. Grants from the National Science Council (R.O.C.) and the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation (the latter for research on the Qiangic languages, including a month of fieldwork on Pumi in Kunming, March, 1996). |
| 1995-96 | Humanities Research Fellowship, U.C. Berkeley, to supplement sabbatical leave in Taipei. |
| 1995-98 | Renewal of STEDT grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. |
| 1997 | Designated as Honorary Senior Research Fellow (Mingyu Gaoji Yanjiuyuan) of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan), Beijing. Attended award ceremony held in Beijing, June 3, 1997. An account of this ceremonial visit to Beijing (June 3-7) appeared in the journal Minzu Yuwen 1997(4), p. 80. |
Prof. James A. Matisoff
University of California
Department of Linguistics
1203 Dwinelle Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-2650
email: matisoff@socrates.berkeley.edu
Fax: (510) 643-9911
Dept. phone: (510) 643-9910
