14.3441, All: Obituary: Helma van den Berg

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-14-3441. Fri Dec 12 2003. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 14.3441, All: Obituary: Helma van den Berg

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry, Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org):
	Sheila Collberg, U. of Arizona
	Terence Langendoen, U. of Arizona

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Sarah Murray <sarah at linguistlist.org>
 ==========================================================================
To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.

=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Tue, 02 Dec 2003 11:46:38 +0100
From:  Martin Haspelmath <haspelmath at eva.mpg.de>
Subject:  Obituary: Helma van den Berg

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Tue, 02 Dec 2003 11:46:38 +0100
From:  Martin Haspelmath <haspelmath at eva.mpg.de>
Subject:  Obituary: Helma van den Berg


Obituary: Helma van den Berg

We were deeply saddened to learn of the death of our colleague Helma
van den Berg, one of the leading Western experts on Daghestanian
languages, who passed away in Derbent (Daghestan, Russia) on 11
November 2003. Helma was only 38 years old. She suffered a heart
attack while working on a dictionary of the Dargi language with her
native-speaker collaborator Ms. Omarova.  She is survived by her
husband Leo.

Helma studied Slavic and Caucasian linguistics at the University of
Leiden and did her Ph.D. research on the Daghestanian language Hunzib
(1995). She taught and did further research at the University of
Leiden, before joining the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology (Leipzig) in 2000.  During her stay here she concentrated
on Dargi lexicography and dialectology, wrote a series of articles on
the comparative grammar of Daghestanian languages, and initiated a
large project on the grammar of Avar, which involved collaboration
with native-speaker linguists.

Helma's untimely death is a terrible blow not only for those who were
close to her, but also for the field of Caucasian linguistics. She had
just been awarded a prestigious grant for innovative research that
would have allowed her to continue her research at the University of
Leiden for five years.

We still find it hard to understand that she should not be among us
anymore. We will miss her dearly.

-
Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at eva.mpg.de)
Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Deutscher Platz 6	
D-04103 Leipzig
Tel. (MPI) +49-341-3550 307, (priv.) +49-341-980 1616




---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-14-3441