Ellen F. Prince, Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, died in her home in Philadelphia on Sunday 24 October. The Linguistics Society of America (via an email to members) and Language Log have reproduced an announcement from the University of Pennsylvania.
Although Professor Prince was not an anthropologist ― her work on discourse and language contact was from the point of view of pragmatics in linguistics ― I valued my opportunity to study with her at the Linguistics Society of America’s Summer Institute. I often think about an off-hand remark she once made about the socio-political similarities between the place of Yiddish in Europe and the place of Black English in North America. She will be missed.