LANE, George Sherman. Clio, co. Wayne, Iowa 28.9.1902 — Chapel Hill, NC 18.9.1981. U.S. Linguist, Scholar of Germanic, IE, Celtic and Tocharian. Professor in Chapel Hill. Son of Franklin Gabriel Lane, a farmer, and Clara Jane Stuart. Educated at local school and State University of Iowa (B.A. 1926 in Comparative Philology, A.M. 1927 in English). In 1927–28 American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellow at University of Iceland, in 1928–29 American Field Service Fellow at Paris University, studying under Benveniste, Lévi, Vendryes and Meillet, in 1929–30 University Fellow at University of Chicago (L. Bloomfield and C. D. Buck). Ph.D. 1930 University of Chicago (Buck). In 1930–34 Research Associate in Comparative Philology at University of Chicago, in 1934–37 Assistant Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. Then at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill: 1937–43 Associate Professor, 1943–50 Professor and 1950–72 Kenan Professor of Germanic and Comparative Linguistics. In 1952–55 Chairman of Dept. of Germanic Languages. In 1956–57 visiting Professor at Oslo University. Retired in 1972. Married 1927 Colette Marie Resweber (1899–1984), children (Eugene N. Lane, 1936–2007, Professor of Classical Philology).
Lane’s main interests were Germanic linguistics, IE and Celtic linguistics, especially Icelandic and Tocharian. Also taught Indo-Iranian and Anatolian languages.
Publications: Words for clothing in the principal indo-european languages. 44 p. Language dissertations 9. Baltimore, MD 1931.
– “A Note on Skr. kakṣa”, AJPh 54, 1933, 63f.
– “Tocharian Puṇyavantajātaka: Text and translation”, JAOS 67, 1947, 33-53; Vocabulary to the Tocharian Puṇyavantajātaka. 42 p. Suppl to the JAOS 8. Baltimore, MD 1952.
– “Problems of Tocharian Phonology”, Language 14, 1938, 20-38; “The Tocharian Palatalization (I)”, Language 21, 1945, 18-26; “On the Present State of Indo-European Linguistics”, Language 25, 1949, 333-342; “Imperfect and Preterit in Tocharian”, Language 29, 1953, 278-287; “The Formation of the Tocharian Subjunctive”, Language 35, 1959, 157-179; “On the Formation of the Indo-European Demonstrative”, Language 37, 1961, 469-475; “Tocharian Evidence and the Trubetzkoy-Benveniste Hypothesis”, Language 38, 1962, 245-253.
– “The Indo-European Labiovelars in Tocharian”, Fs. W. Krause 1960, 72-79; “The Tocharian Verbal Stems in -tk-”, JAOS 85, 1965, 66-73; “On the interrelationship of the Tocharian dialects”, Jaan Puhvel (ed.), Ancient Indo-European dialects. Berkeley & Los Angeles 1966, 213-233; “The Inflection of Sanskrit Nouns found in Tocharian Texts”, 89, 1969, 542-546; further articles and reviews.
– Studies in Kuchean grammar. 1. 53 p. Suppl. to JAOS 13. Baltimore, MD 1958.
– Also wrote on Germanic and Celtic linguistics.
Sources: Dir. of Am. Sch. 6th ed. 3; *W.W. Arndt (ed.), Studies in Historical Linguistics in Honor of G.S.L. Chapel Hill 1967; B. Davis, Language 59, 1983, 355-359 with bibliography; S.R. Smith, Lex. Gramm. 1996, 548; Wikipedia; family in findagrave.com.
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