Gerhardt Laves

Who was Gerhardt Laves?

Gerhardt Laves was a graduate student at the University of Chicago and Yale University who between August 1929 and August 1931 undertook extensive fieldwork on Australian Aboriginal languages. Laves was probably the first person trained in modern linguistic fieldwork and analysis to study Australian languages. He intensively studied six languages: 'Kumbaingeri' at northern NSW; 'Karadjeri' at La Grange Bay, north-west WA; 'Barda' at Cape L'Évêque Peninsula, north-west WA; 'Kurin' near Albany WA; and 'Hermit Hill' and 'Ngengumeri at Daly River NT. On the basis of his work Laves concluded that all Australian languages belong to a single language family.

After his fieldwork he returned to Chicago, married [1932] and followed his mentor, Edward Sapir, to Yale in New Haven, CT where he continued his graduate studies. Before completing his Ph.D. he left Yale to be a teacher on the Navajo reservation at Shiprock, New Mexico. Several years later he returned to Chicago where he began a career with the International Harvester Company in Chicago. Laves never returned to linguistics or anthropology and only published two notes based on his work on Australian languages.