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MARY R. HAAS JManual 12, 1910-May 17, 1996 BY KENNETH L. PIKE THE WORK OF MARY HAAS has a special fascination for me, since she finisher! her cloctoral dissertation on Tunica, an American Indian language, in 1935, the same year that I starter! my studies of linguistics (with the Summer Institute of Linguistics) en c! went to Mexico to stucly an Indian lan- guage (Mixtec). This was the explosive age of descriptive linguistics, which we sharer! en c! which was especially fo- cusec! on American Indian languages. She stucliec! with Sapir en c! some of the other leaclers, as I clic! (I got my clue to the analysis of tone from Sapir at one of the early summer sessions of the Linguistic Society of America at the Univer- sity of Michigan). Haas's first article (on Nitinat spoken on Vancouver Is- lancI) was publisher! in 1932 jointly with Morris Swaclesh, her husbanc! from 1931 to 1937, whose articles on phone- mics in 1934 en c! 1937 were useful to me, supplementing work by Leonarc! Bloomfielc! en c! Edward! Sapir. Haas's early concentration was on the description of American Indian languages of North America, later she en c! other clescrip- tive linguists shifter! their attention to the east cluring the war to help the U.S. Armec! Forces unclerstanc! languages that hac! not been well known to Americans. 149

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50 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS I asker! Paulette Hopple, who worker! in Thailanc! for many years with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, for a com- ment on Haas. She repliecI, "I first met Mary Haas in 1979 at the Sino-Tibetan Conference in Paris, where we cliscussec! numeral classifier systems in Mayan, Thai, en c! Burmese. Although clelightec! en c! awes! by her knowlecige en c! expe- rience in linguistics, what intrigues! me about Mary was her personal approachability en c! humility. She communicates! personal interest, compassion, a gentle sense of humor, in- cluding an ability to laugh fat difficult] circumstances." BRIEF SUMMARY OF PROFESSIONAL CAREER Haas was born in Richmond, Indiana, gracluatec! there from high school en c! college, clic! graduate work (1930-31) in Chicago on comparative philology, en c! clic! her Ph.D. in linguistics (1931-35) on the American Indian language Tu- nica at Yale. After that, she carrier! on various research tasks on American Indian languages under the anthropol- ogy department at Yale en c! the American Philosophical Society, ~ 935-41, on Thai, ~ 941-45, uncler the American Council of Learner! Societies, en c! research in connection with her appointments at the University of California, Ber- keley, 1946-53. Along with her research, she hac! various regular university appointments at Berkeley: lecturer in Siamese (Thai) for an Army training program, 1943-44, lec- turer in Siamese and linguistics, 1947-53, associate profes- sor, 1953-57, professor, 1957-77, acting chairman of linguis- tics, 1956-57, en c! chairman, 1958-64. She hac! numerous short-term (e.g., summer or one-semester) appointments for lectures in anthropology, Thai, or linguistics in various places in the Uniter! States en c! Canada. She receiver! hon- orary doctorates from Northwestern University (1975), Uni- versity of Chicago (1976), EarTham College, Richmond, In- cliana ~ ~ 980), en c! Ohio State University ~ ~ 980) . She was a

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MARY R. HAAS 151 member of various professional societies, inclucling the Na- tional Academy of Sciences (1978~. In aciclition, she was vice-presiclent of the Linguistic Society of America in 1956 en c! president in ~ 963. PHONOLOGY BITS AMONG THE TUNICA Because of my own interest in phonology for the years 1935-50, I will start by discussing a few of the phonological issues that Haas facet! in studying the North American lan- guage Tunica (an "isolate" with historical relationships not clear). The consonants of Tunica (Haas 1941, pp. 13-14) have one surprise: the voicer! stops /b, cI, g/ occur "only in a few isolated words (of foreign or probably foreign ori- gin)", but the voiceless fricatives have no voicer! counter- parts. Each syllable begins with a consonant, some ens! with a consonant, some clusters of two consonants come mecli ally in a worth en c! some consonant clusters may be pre- ceclec! by /n/. Vowels are normally short, unless in stresses! syllables. In Tunica (1941, pp. 19-20) stresses! syllables with their pitch relations are also of interest to me. The first stresses! syllable of a phrase may be stronger than the unstressed! ones en c! is often (but not necessarily, en c! not with seman- tic implications) a bit higher in pitch. Stressec! syllables as a whole, however, enter into various "phrasal pitch contours," or "meloclies." In them, a final stresses! syllable may be a bit higher than the penultimate one, or the final one may have a falling melocly, or it may have a rising one, or a falling- rising one, or may be lower than the prececling syllable. Some monosyllabic prefixes (anc! some other forms) have special phonological rules (pp. 20-34), which I do not sum- marize here. The predicative wore! of a main clause (p. 89) will have high melocly if it is indicative, low if quotative, rising if interrogative, en c! falling if imperative.

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52 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS SOME MORPHOLOGICAL BITS IN TUNICA With her Tunica (1941) Haas has some morphemic analysis of long words. This is interesting, since there are numerous words with up to six syllables in agglutinative arrangement. For example (p. 52), "The semelfactive paradigm consists of a causative stem plus the semelfactive forms of the caus- ative auxiliary." For example: ?uhp~hus~ntak ?ahca They would hicle him (literally, cause him to hicle) from ?uhk- + p~hu..c. to cause . . . to hicle (hence "to hicle") + -Santa, feminine dual or plural semelfactive, + -k?ahca, fu- ture positive. ENote: ? signifies a glottal stop.] For a full text with cletailec! analysis see pp. 135-43. Unfor- tunately, in her presentation it is often very difficult for the beginner to see where morphemes in a wore! or phrase begin or end. A NOTE ON TUNICA SYNTAX AND TEXTS Haas has a discussion of syntax ~ 1941, pp. 89-134) with texts illustrated on pp. 135-43, and in 1950 with extensive texts (with notes giving morphemic analyses). She discusses (1941, pp. 90-91) simple versus compound and complex sentences (with compounc! ones having two or more main clauses en c! complex ones having a main clause plus one or more subordinate clauses of clepenclent, complementary, relative, or aciverbial types). The following illustration is a simple sentence with just one clause:

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MARY R. HAAS H~ . -'7 ay~s~u. The One above man indep. subj. indep. obj. ton~ku, ? 153 uhba'c7in ?uhkeni createc! it is saicI. predicate word Clauses (pp. 91-93) are of two principle types, main and subordinate. Subordinates are clepenclent Subordinate only to the main verb), complementary, relative, en c! aciverbial. The clepenclent clauses have a subordinating postfix on the predicate (cletails on pp. 91-102, noun classification for gen- cler en c! number, pp. 102-03, proverbs en c! postfixes, pp. Il4-26, wore! classes in syntactic uses, pp. 126-34, inclucling excIamatives en c! imitatives, p.~34). Texts ~ ~ 950) inclucle myths (solar, thuncler, origins of corn or beans), tales (about eagles, owls, submarine people), animal stories, historical or pseuclohistorical narratives (re- venge, migrations, robberies), personal narratives (about families, or rabbits, or war), ethnological ciata (about foot! types, house construction, fire, fever remedies, shooting ghosts), en c! miscellaneous (one-eyoc! beings, water animals, woodpeckers, the ocean ciriec! up). These occur in Tunica in English translation with footnote alternative literal transla- tions or comments. A RESEARCH AND TEACHING SHIFT TO THAI In 1941 Haas starter! fieldwork in the phonology en c! syn- tax of Thai (Siamese) at the University of Michigan be- cause of the new! for speakers of Asiatic languages as war clevelopecI. She hac! help in this from the American Coun- cil of Learner! Societies. (She marries! one of the speakers of Thai, Heng R. Subhanka, they were clivorcec! some years later. ~ While cloing research on Thai ~ ~ 942-43), she was concurrently an instructor in oriental languages at the Uni- versity of Michigan. Moving to the University of California, Berkeley, she lecturer! on Thai for the Army SpeciaTizec!

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54 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Training Program. Her publications on Thai were consicler- able, for example, Spoken Thai, book I in 1945 en c! book II in 194S, with Heng R. Subhanka en c! the Thai-English Student's Dictionary ~ ~ 964) . THAI TONES In 1958 Haas cliscussec! the tones of four Thai cliaTects with tone patterns differing in their relation to consonants and to geographical occurrence. Thai itself has high, mid, Tow, rising, en c! falling tones (the cliaTect of Nakhonsit- hammarat has seven tones). Proto-Thai presumably hac! four tone categories, the first three of which were fount! only with a syllable having a Tong vowel, semivowel, or nasal, while the other occurrec! only with syllables having a final stop, en c! the initial consonant (voiceless versus voicecI) con- clitionec! the clevelopment of the different tones. For Thai, note: High in nod, "bird" Mid in bin, "to fly" Low in sib, "ten" Rising in man, "clog" Falling in kaw, "nine" A NOTE ON THAI WORDS AND SYNTAX Many Thai words are comprises! of single syllables. Some samples were given above in the illustration of tones. Many more are given in Haas 1955. Some of these combine to make complex words. For example (p. 264~: Khwaam: the sense, substance (as of a letter), but in special usage often placer! in front of a verb to form an abstract noun. May often be translates! -ness, ity, -th, -lion, etc. Thus, khwaamklua is "fear."

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MARY R. HAAS 155 However (1962, p. 49), "Since Thai is conventionally writ- ten without any spaces between words, the English-speak- ing student has no clue as to which elements form a seman- tic unit en c! which do not." As for syntax (1964, p. arc): "The typical sentence contains subject, verb, object, in that or- der, e.g., He khaw sw' buys meat nya ON HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS In 1969 Haas wrote a book on the prehistory of languages in relation to general principles. This inclucles phonologi- cal types of change, morphological reconstruction, prob- lems of classification, en c! diffusion. Incluclec! also are some tables for Wiyot-Yorok-AIgonquian-Gulf (p. 62), proto- Muskogean (p.42), AIgonkian and Yurok cognates (p. 67), en c! pre-Muskogean en c! Tunica (pp. 63-64~. As inclicatec! above, Haas treats Tunica as an isolate without strongly prov- able relations to other languages, but she suggests that Tu- nica may be relater! to the pre-proto-Muskogean, baser! not on cletailec! lexical evidence, but (pp. 63-64) on some of its partially similar affix features. · . . . . . .. ON LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING in a manual publisher! in 1945 (anc! reprintec! in 1978), Haas en c! Subhanka wrote that "Prosecution of the war cre- atec! the new! for these materials to teach spoken language." (The material was especially inclebtec! to Henry Lee Smith, {r., of the Language Section in the Education Branch en c! liaison with the Intensive Language Program, through l. Milton Cowan.) The sections inclucle basic sentences, new words (anc! "how to take apart the words en c! phrases . . . en c! to make new words en c! phrases on the same moclel"),

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56 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS hints on pronunciation, en c! "a number of new ways of say- ing things. " Part one (in book one ) inclucles "Getting around," "Buying things," "Meeting people," "Family and friends," "What do you do for a living?" and 'Review." "Part two" inclucles "How clo you like the weather?" "Getting a room in a hotel," "Getting dressed," "Let's go eat," "A shop- ping trip," en c! "Review." Part three (in Book Two): "On the train," "At the beach," "Let's go to the game," "Making a call," "At the play," en c! "Review." Part 4: "Getting a pass- port," "At the university," "Going to the doctor's," "The bank en c! the post office," "Home en c! neighbors." en c! "Re O , view." Part Five: "Geography," "Agriculture," "Industry," "Gov- ernment," "The country en c! its people," en c! "Review." The materials are on phonograph records for practice hearing. In a more theoretical article Haas (1953) discusses the important relation of linguistics to language teaching. She mentions the work of Boas, Sapir, en c! BloomfielcI, en c! how the earlier descriptive work is still neeclecI, but it neecis approaches to teaching applications (as Bloomfielc! trier! to show). Reading is not enough. Memorization of paradigms is not enough, conversational teaching is neeclecI. For many students beginning the stucly of a foreign language, these approaches shouIc! best precede cletailec! analytical work. She mentions also some materials of personal interest to me (e.g., the work of Charles C. Fries en c! the English Lan T , ·, , , , 1 T T · ·, r ~ '. 1 ~ o guage 1nsulule al me university or 1vllcnlgan, where I worked for a time on the intonation of American English, which she also refers to). _ ~_ _ _ _ _ ~ _ __ _ 7 In a short, excellent, and easy-to-understand earlier ar- ticle (1943), Haas gives instructions to help the beginning student learn any language. The linguist can learn a lan- guage quickly (p. 202) by working with "a native speaker, whom he treats not as a teacher but purely as a source of information." But the linguist must also teach the student

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MARY R. HAAS 157 the techniques of eliciting information, en c! analyzing en c! organizing the speaker's ciata, inclucling appropriate pho- netics. An c! (p. 205) "many of the funciamental features of the fanalytical] methoc! were first clevelopec! in the stucly of American Indian languages, which often present unusually clifficult phonetic en c! grammatical systems." The students may either "participate with the linguist in the analysis of the language to be learned" or (p. 206) the linguist ana- lyzes in advance en c! acts "as a moclel for imitation," teach- ing "instead of only guiding." Haas's students (pp. 206-207) in Thai are "first of all taught to use a phonemic notation" so that "they may con- centrate on the pronunciation from the very beginning," This en c! they can use it to "carry on all their work practice reflects one of the basic assumptions of our methocI: SPEAKING MUST COME BEFORE READING." About half of the stuclent's time goes into "more traclitional" work with "grammatical discussion, wore! study, translation of Thai into English en c! English into Thai," en c! cirill on "troublesome points of grammar." The other half goes into cirill "to cle- velop goof! pronunciation and, later on, the ability to con- verse in Thai." The cirill consists of three kinds: (~) exer- cises of imitation to train students to imitate exactly "so that they may be unclerstoocI", (2) exercises of clictation so that students may write clown what they hear, improve per- ception, en c! "recorc! new worcis even before they have learner! the traclitional native alphabet", en c! (3) exercises of recog- nition en c! response to "train them to unclerstanc! en c! an- swer what they hear, so that they may gain experience in the actual use of the language as a means of social inter- course. " The dictation exercises are "intenclec! to improve the stuclent's ability to hear, not his ability to spell." An c! in early stages the informant dictates only words that the class

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58 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS have aireacly stucliecI, then "short sentences containing fa- miliar words", then "sentences containing new words", en c! finally "whole passages with oIc! en c! new words minglecI." Later, the student learns how to correct mistakes "by com- paring the troublesome feature of a new wore! with a simi- lar feature of some wore! aIreacly known." An c! when the tone of a wore! is not clearly heard, it is stucliec! by compar- ing it with a wore! "whose tone is known to him." He cloes the same (p. 208) for vowels, aspiration, etc. After the stu- clent "has learner! several huncirec! words en c! has acquirer! reasonable facility in conversation through the use of the phonemic writing alone, then but not until then he be- gins to learn the traclitional system of writing." Haas in- forms us (p. 208) that her experience tells her that stu- dents like to learn a foreign language this way. "It gives them a sense of reality en c! the assurance that they are actually on the way." FOR THIS MEMOIR ~ have drawn heavily on Haas's curriculum vitae provided by the National Academy of Sciences, and I am grateful for a recent obituary by Golla, which includes a Haas bibliography of about 130 items (V. Golla. Mary R. Haas (obituary). Language 73 (4) :826-37) .

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MARY R. HAAS SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1932 159 With M. Swadesh. A visit to the other world; a Nitinat text. IJAL 7:195-208. 1941 Tunica. In Handbook of American Indian Languages, vol. 4. New York: Augustin Publishers. 1943 The linguist as a teacher of languages. Language 19:203-208. 1950 Tunica texts. In University of California Publications in Linguistics, vol. 6. Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1953 The application of linguistics to language teaching. In Anthropology Today, ed. Kroeber, pp. 807-18. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1955 Thai vocabulary. In Program in Oriental Languages, A:2. Washington, D. C.: American Council of Learned Societies. 1958 The tones of four Tai dialects. Bull. Inst. Hist. Philol. 29:817-26. 1962 What belongs in a bilingual dictionary? In Problems in Lexicography, eds. F. W. Householder and S. Soporta. IJAL 28:45-50 1964 Thai-English Student's Dictionary. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1969 The Prehistory of Languages. Paris: Mouton. With H. R. Subhanka. Spoken Thai, books I and II. Ithaca, N.Y.: Spoken Language Services.