Harry Hoijer was a linguist and anthropologist who worked on primarily Athabaskan languages and culture.

He additionally documented the Tonkawa language

Tonkawa language

The Tonkawa language was spoken in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico by the Tonkawa people. A language isolate, with no known related languages, Tonkawa is now extinct...

, which is now extinct

Extinct language

An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...

. Hoijer's few works make up the bulk of material on this language.

Hoijer was a student of Edward Sapir

Edward Sapir

Edward Sapir was an American anthropologist-linguist, widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the early development of the discipline of linguistics....

.

Hoijer contributed greatly to the documentation of the Southern

Southern Athabaskan languages

Southern Athabaskan is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the North American Southwest with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas...

 and Pacific Coast Athabaskan languages and to the reconstruction of proto-Athabaskan.

Harry Hoijer collected a large number of valuable fieldnotes

Fieldnotes

Fieldnotes refer to various notes recorded by scientists during or after their observation of a specific phenomenon they are studying. Fieldnotes are particularly valued in descriptive sciences such as ethnography, biology, geology, and archaeology, each of which have long traditions in this...

 on many Athabaskan languages, which are unpublished. Some of his notes on Lipan Apache and the Tonkawa language

Tonkawa language

The Tonkawa language was spoken in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico by the Tonkawa people. A language isolate, with no known related languages, Tonkawa is now extinct...

 are lost.

As a note of interest, it was Hoijer who coined the term "Sapir–Whorf hypothesis

Sapir–Whorf hypothesis

The principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers are able to conceptualize their world, i.e. their world view...

".

External links

• Harry Hoijer (a very short bio)
• Harry Hoijer Collection (American Philosophical Society)
• Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts (by Harry Hoijer & Morris Opler)

Works by Hoijer

• [Beals, Ralph L].; & Hoijer, Harry. (1953). An introduction to anthropology. New York: Macmillan Company. (Republished 1959, 1965, and 1971).
• Hoijer, Harry. (n.d.). Chiricahua Apache stems. [Unpublished manuscript].
• Hoijer, Harry. (n.d.). Mescalero Apache stems. [Unpublished manuscript].
• Hoijer, Harry. (1933). Tonkawa: An Indian language of Texas. New York: Columbia University. (Extract from Handbook of American Indian languages, Vol. 3).
• Hoijer, Harry. (1945). Navaho phonology. University of New Mexico publications in anthropology, (No. 1).
• Hoijer, Harry. (1946). Chiricahua Apache. In C. Osgood (Ed.), Linguistic structures in North America. New York: Wenner-Green Foundation for Anthropological Research.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1963). The Athapaskan languages. In H. Hoijer (Ed.), Studies in the Athapaskan languages (pp. 1–29). Berkeley: University of California Press
  University of California Press
  University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
  
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• Hoijer, Harry. (1970). A Navajo lexicon. University of California Publications in Linguistics (No. 78). Berkeley: University of California Press
  University of California Press
  University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
  
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• Hoijer, Harry. (1971). Athapaskan morphology. In J. Saywer (Ed.), Studies in American Indian languages (pp. 113–147). University of California publications in linguistics (No. 65). Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1971). The position of the Apachean languages in the Athpaskan stock. In K. H. Basso & M. E. Opler (Eds.), Apachean culture history and ethnology (pp. 3–6). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1971). “Patterns of Meaning in Navaho.” In Themes in Culture. (eds. Zamora, Mario; Mahar, J.M.; and Orenstein, Henry.). Quezon City: Kayumanggi Publishers. 227–237.
• Hoijer, Harry; & Opler, Morris E. (1938). Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache texts. The University of Chicago publications in anthropology; Linguistic series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Reprinted 1964 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; in 1970 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; & in 1980 under H. Hoijer by New York: AMS Press, ISBN 0-404-15783-1).

Works edited by Hoijer

• Hoijer, Harry (Ed.). (1954). Language in culture: Conference on the interrelations of language and other aspects of culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Hoijer, Harry (Ed.). (1963). Studies in the Athapaskan languages. University of California publications in linguistics (No. 29). Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Sapir, Edward, & Hoijer, Harry. (1967). Navaho texts. William Dwight Whitney series, Linguistic Society of America.
• Sapir, Edward, & Hoijer, Harry. (1967). Phonology and morphology of the Navaho language. Berkeley: University of California Press.