Eric P. Hamp

Eric Pratt Hamp (1920-2019) was an American linguist born in London on November 16, 1920, who became a leading authority on Indo-European linguistics with particular interests in Celtic languages and Albanian, including the Arbresh and Arvanitika varieties. Unlike many Indo-Europeanists who worked only from written materials, he conducted extensive fieldwork on lesser-known Indo-European languages and dialects, and his interests also extended to American Indian languages; he served as editor of the International Journal of American Linguistics. Hamp spent his entire career at the University of Chicago, holding the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professorship, and authored more than 3,500 articles and reviews before his death in Traverse City, Michigan, on February 17, 2019.