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<div>Dear AN-langers</div>
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<div>You will have learned of the death of Otto Nekitel from notes
posted in the last day or two. A short obituary follows.</div>
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<div>Otto Nekitel, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Papua
New Guinea, died on 12 September, aged 51. He suffered a fatal heart
attack during a lecturing visit to the Lae University of Technology.
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<div>Born Otto Ignatius Soko'um Manganau Nekitel in Womsis Village,
Aitape District in Sandaun (then West Sepik) Province on 12 December
1949, Otto's first language was Abu' Arapesh, famous for its complex
noun class system. After High School in Aitape, Otto briefly attended
Seminary College then undertook undergraduate studies at the
University of Papua New Guinea, taking a BEd in 1975 and a BAH in
1978. He then gained an East West Center scholarship to study
linguistics at the University of Hawaii, where he completed an MA in
1979. In the early 1980s he embarked on a PhD in the Research School
of Pacific Studies, Australian National University and in 1986 became
the first Papuan New Guinean to receive a doctorate in linguistics.
His thesis was on 'Sociolinguistics Aspects of Abu'. From 1986-2001 he
taught linguistics in the Department of Language and Literature at the
UPNG, where he was appointed Professor in 1995. </div>
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<div>Otto was much concerned with language endangerment and
educational issues in Papua New Guinea. His book<i> Voices of
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Language and Identity</i>, published in
1999, is a thoughtful assessment of the position and future of the
languages of New Guinea. He wrote a number of papers about Abu'
Arapesh morphosyntax and was working on a grammar and dictionary of
Abu'. He was a welcoming host to many linguists calling at the UPNG
and always pressed visitors to give talks in his Department. My last
meeting with Otto was a lively evening at home in Canberra couple of
years ago, during his two month visiting fellowship at the Research
Centre for Linguistic Typology at ANU. He felt keenly the
deteriorating financial position and morale of the UPNG, and much of
the talk was of national and academic politics. He was due to come to
Canberra again last November as a panelist at the 'Papuan Pasts'
conference but at the last minute duties at UPNG prevented him from
travelling. We have lost a key figure in Papua New Guinea linguistics.
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<div>Otto is survived by his wife Gertrude and five children.</div>
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<div>Andrew Pawley</div>
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