Pitkin, Harvey

Born in New York City on April 22, 1928, Harvey Pitkin received his doctorate in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1963. Under the direction of Alfred L. Kroeber, he directed his attention to a study of the dialects of Wintu (Wintu and Patwin), a Penutian language of Northern California, and later to Yuki and Wappo, California languages of uncertain affinity. Relatively early in Pitkin's career, Kroeber entrusted him with his invaluable collection of Yuki notes and notebooks, feeling that Piktin's ear was better attuned to the subtleties of the language.

In 1960, Pitkin was hired as Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Berkeley, earning promotion to Associate in 1964 and full professor in 1980. He later served on the faculty at Columbia University until his retirement.

Pitkin's publications included two major monographs, Wintu Grammar, University of California Publications in Linguistics 94 (1985), and Wintu Dictionary University of California Publications in Linguistics 95, the former bassed largely on his dissertation. Among several articles he wrote were "A Comparative Survey of California Penutian," "A Bibliography of the Wintun Family of Languages," "A Comparison of Miwok and Wintun" (with Sylvia A. Broadbent), "Language and Culture," "Some Problems of Method in Anthropological Linguistics," "Coyote and Bullhead, a Wintu Text," "Squirrel and Acorn-Woman (Wintu)," and "Two Plus Two Makes Two: An Analysis of Wintu Numerals."