H.C. Wolfart

Who is H.C. Wolfart?

H. Christoph Wolfart is a German-born Canadian researcher, editor, translator and Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at the University of Manitoba. He is a graduate of the University of Freiburg as well as Cornell University. He completed a Ph.D. in 1969 at Yale, and has since written and edited a corpus of over one-hundred books, articles and reference grammars. In 2008, John D. Nichols and Arden C. Ogg edited a collection of Algonquian and Iroquoian language studies in honour of Wolfart. Prof. Wolfart was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1995, and his 1973 thesis is still considered the definitive work of Plains Cree grammar. Over the last 20 years, Wolfart has recorded, transcribed and edited a host of culturally significant texts by Cree elders. Some of his students have included Cree linguist and cultural preservationist Freda Ahenakew, and authority on the Algonquian languages David Pentland.