PULGRAM, Ernst. Vienna 18.9.1915 — Ireland 17.8.2005. U.S. (Austrian-born) Linguist, Specialist of Italic and Romance Languages. Son of tailor Sigmund Pulgram. Educated in Vienna,1934 began studies at Vienna under Kretschmer et al., Ph.D. 1938 in Romance philology. After Anschluss he had to escape from the Nazis as a Jew in 1938 to Switzerland. Moved to the U.S.A. 1939 and in 1941-43 served in U.S. Army in WW II. Invalidated by an injury studied at Harvard, Ph.D. 1946 in Comparative Linguistics (under Whatmough). Assistant Professor at Union College in Schenectady 1946-48. In 1948-79 Assistant Professor and 1979-86 Professor of Romance and Classical Linguistics at University of Michigan. Hon. LL.D. Vienna 1990. Died during a vacation in Ireland. Married Frances McSparren (d. 2026), an English linguist.
Publications: “Indo-European Personal Names”, Language 23, 1947, 189-206; “Proto-Indo-European Reality and Reconstruction”, Language 35, 1959, 421-426; “New Evidence on Indo-European Names”, Language 36, 1960, 198-202; other articles.
– Syllable, word, nexus, cursus. 131 p. Janua Ling. series minor 81. the Hague 1970.
– Latin-Romance Phonology: Prosodics and Metrics. 301 p. Ars grammatica 4. Munich 1975.
– Practicing Linguist: Essays on Language and Languages 1950–1985. 1. On Language. 2. On Languages. ???. 6+346 p. Heidelberg 1986-88.
Sources: *S.N. Dworkin, Romanische Forsch. 118, 2006, 61-64; gedenkbuch.univie.ac.at; W. Briggs in Rutgers Database of Classical Scholars with photo; Wikipedia.