A Brigham Young University professor of linguistics will deliver the annual James L. Barker Lecture in Language and Linguistics Thursday (Nov. 21) at 11 a.m. in 2084 Jesse Knight Humanities Building.
Melvin J. Luthy, director of the Center for Language Studies and associate dean of the College of Humanities, will present his lecture, "Tolkien, Longfellow, Hebrew, and the Finnish Kalevala." The event is free.
The Barker Lectureship, named in honor of a noted BYU scholar of phonetics, carries a $1,000 honorarium plus travel and research expenses. Barker chaired BYU's language department from 1907 to 1914 and taught at BYU, Weber Academy, the University of Utah and the University of Chicago.
Luthy earned his bachelor's degree in psychology at Utah State University and his Ph.D. in linguistics from Indiana University. He served as a captain in U.S. Army Intelligence in Vietnam and taught at Wisconsin State University before joining BYU faculty in 1971.
Writer: Craig Kartchner
