Malkiel, Yakov

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MALKIEL, YAKOV

MALKIEL, YAKOV (1914–1998), U.S. philologist. Born in Kiev, Russia, educated in Berlin, Malkiel immigrated to the United States in 1940. From 1942 he was a faculty member at the University of California (Berkeley) and later professor of linguistics and Romance philology. In 1947 he became founder and editor-in-chief of the journal Romance Philology. He was president of the Linguistic Society of America in 1965. He was author of numerous articles and monographs dealing with historical linguistics, Hispanic lexicology, and the theory of etymology and lexicography, and he constantly attempted to mediate between general linguistics and Romance philology.

Among his works are Studies in the Reconstruction of Hispano-Latin Word Families (1954), Essays on Linguistic Themes (1968), Yakov Malkiel: A Tentative Autobibliography (1988), and Etymology (1993). He edited Directions for Historical Linguistics: A Symposium (1968), with Winfred P. Lehmann.

[Jonas C. Greenfield /

Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]