Elinor Clark Horne, 1939
B.A., Denison University
M.A., Yale University
Concord, Mass.
Citation awarded on Saturday, May 31, 1969
Elinor Clark Horne is a recognized linguist, scholar, and teacher whose research has contributed significantly to the academic knowledge of oriental languages and to the awakening of interest in the little-known cultures of the East.
A research associate in Javanese at Harvard University, she is currently engaged in a pioneering project in the application of computer technology to lexicography under a U.S. Office of Education grant. Funded by the Office of Education for the past 15 years and by the Ford Foundation earlier, her investigations at Yale and Harvard have enabled American students to become adept in Korean, Japanese, and the Javanese language of Indonesia.
A student of classical, modern European, and oriental languages, she started as a graduate student instructor to military personnel at Yale during World War II. A member of Yale’s linguistic faculty until 1965, she added the teaching of English to foreign students to her specialties in oriental languages. Her publications include the authoritative works of Spoken Korean in 1950, Beginning Javanese in 1961, Intermediate Javanese in 1963, and a forthcoming Javanese-English dictionary. She also co-authored Beginning Korean in 1969. Southeast Asian scholars recognize her as the only American authority on Javanese.
