Obituary: Otto Nekitel

[Andy Pawley]

Dear AN-langers

You will have learned of the death of Otto Nekitel from notes posted
in the last day or two.  A short obituary follows.


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.

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.

Otto was much concerned with language endangerment and educational
issues in Papua New Guinea. His book Voices of Yesterday, Today and
Tomorrow: Language and Identity, 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.

Otto is survived by his wife Gertrude and five children.

Andrew Pawley



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