Einar Ingvald Haugen (April 19, 1906 - June 20, 1994) was a linguist and Professor at University of Wisconsin and Harvard University.
Haugen was born in Sioux City, Iowa to Norwegians from the town of Oppdal in Norway. As a young child, the family moved back to Oppdal for a few years, but then returned to the United States. He attended Morningside College in Sioux City but transferred to St. Olaf College to study with Ole Edvart Rĝlvaag, where he earned his B.A. in 1928. He immediately went on to graduate studies in linguistics at the University of Illinois, where he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1931.
Haugen joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in 1931, where he stayed until 1962. He was made Victor S. Thomas Professor of Scandinavian and Linguistics at Harvard University in 1964, and stayed here until his retirement in 1975. Haugen served as president of the Linguistic Society of America, the American Dialect Society, and the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study .
Haugen is credited for having pioneered the field of sociolinguistics and being a leading scholar within the field of Norwegian-American studies, including Old Norse studies. Perhaps his most important work was The Norwegian language in America; A study in bilingual behavior (ISBN 0253341159). In addition to several important works within these fields, he wrote the authoritative work on the dialect of his ancestral home of Oppdal.
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