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About Tucker Childs (1948 - 2021)

On January 26, 2021, G. Tucker Childs, a prominent African linguist, anthropological linguist, and life-long field worker, who devoted decades of research to the documentation and preservation of endangered West African languages and their cultures, passed away.

G. Tucker Childs received his Ph.D. from the University of California (Berkeley) and taught at and was associated with research institutions and universities in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Africa. He was a Professor of Applied Linguistics at Portland State University (Oregon, USA). He was the recipient of the 2017 Kenneth L. Hale Award, first presented in 2002, which recognizes scholars who have done outstanding work on the documentation of a particular language or family of languages that are endangered or no longer spoken. Dr. Childs worked on the highly endangered Bolom languages of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia since 1982, having learned to speak one of the languages, Kisi, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia (1970-72​).

His research interests are located primarily in Africa and include phonology and morphology, typology, variation and change, contact linguistics, and sociolinguistics. Childs worked on many non-core linguistic topics such as sound symbolism, which is particularly robust in the African word class known as ideophones, as well as on pidgins and urban slang, and language variation in general. His work documenting the Mani, Sherbro, and Kim and Bom languages is archived in the Endangered Languages of Sierra Leone and Guinea collection in PDXScholar and can be accessed here: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/endangered_languages/. Dr. Childs is currently working to document Kisi proverbs.

Positions

1996 - January 2021 Professor, Portland State University ‐ Applied Linguistics
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2007 - 2018 Visiting Professor, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone ‐ • Linguistics Section, English Programme
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June 2008 - September 2008 Visiting Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara ‐ Institute on Field Linguistics and Language Documentation
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June 2007 - September 2007 Visiting Professor, Università del Molise ‐ Summer School on Linguistic Methodology
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2000 - 2000 Visiting Professor, Université de Kankan ‐ Faculté de Sciences Humaines
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January 2000 - August 2000 Visiting Professor (Fulbright), Université de Conakry ‐ Centre d’Etude des Langues Guinéennes
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1999 - 2000 Visiting Professor, Langage, Langues et Cultures d’Afrique Noire (LLACAN) ‐ UMR 7594 du CNRS
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1998 - 1998 Visiting Professor, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität ‐ • Englisches Seminar
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1994 - 1996 Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Toronto ‐ Department of Linguistics
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1991 - 1994 Senior Lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg ‐ Department of Linguistics
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1988 - 1990 Visiting Assistant Professor, Temple University ‐ Department of English Linguistic Program
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1985 - 1988 Language Coordinator, University of California, Berkeley ‐ • Center for African Studies
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1982 - 1985 Visiting Assistant Professor, • San Jose State University ‐ Department of Linguistics
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1981 - 1983 Teaching Associate, • University of California, Berkeley ‐ Department of Linguistics
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Curriculum Vitae

Disciplines

Research Interests

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Honors and Awards

  • • 2018. Kenneth L. Hale Award by the Linguistic Society of America for outstanding work on the Bolom Language Group of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Salt Lake City Utah, Annual Meeting of the LSA, January 6th.
  • 2007. Post-tenure Faculty Development Award, Portland State University. July 2007. Support for research assistant to prepare Mani dictionary for publication.
  • • 2002. Center for Academic Excellence, Portland State University. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning with Technology Award. April 2002.
  • • 2001. Portland State University. Faculty Enhancement Award. Portland Dialect Survey. May.
  • 2000. Bremer Stiftung für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Bremen, Germany. Research award for social anthropology. Pilot fieldwork on Mani, a dying language of Guinea. June-July
  • 1999. Fulbright Lecturer/Researcher Award, Guinea. Creating the English Language Program at the University of Kankan
  • researching the under-described Atlantic languages of Guinea at the Centre d’Études des Langues Guinéennes (CELG), University of Conakry. Jan-Aug.
  • 1998. Bremer Stiftung für Kultur- und Sozial-anthropologie, Bremen, Germany. Research award for social anthropology. (July 1999). Work on the under-described Atlantic languages of Guinea.

Education

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1988 PhD, • University of California; Berkeley ‐ Department of Linguistics
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1987 • Advanced Intensive Swahili Institute
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1982 MS, • Georgetown University ‐ Department of Sociolinguistics
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1979 M.Ed., • University of Virginia; Charlottesville ‐ Department of English Instruction
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1975 Diploma (Hons.), • Trinity College, University of Dublin ‐ Anglo-Irish Literature
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1970 BA, • Stanford University ‐ Department of English
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Links

Lost Voices Video Series (4)

Books (1)

Book chapters (2)

Book reviews (1)

Articles (19)