Marie-Lucie Tarpent facts for kids

Marie-Lucie Tarpent was born in France on November 9, 1941. She is a Canadian linguist, which means she studies languages. She used to be a professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Canada.

Marie-Lucie Tarpent is well-known for her important work on the Nisga'a language. This language belongs to the Tsimshianic languages family. She also proved that the Tsimshianic languages are connected to the Penutian languages group.

Early Life and Education

Marie-Lucie Tarpent was born in Tonnerre, France. She earned her first university degree in English and German in 1963 from the University of Paris. The next year, she studied at the University of Vermont.

In 1965, she received her master's degree in linguistics from Cornell University. She continued her studies at Simon Fraser University for several years. In 1989, she completed her PhD in Linguistics at the University of Victoria.

Studying Languages and Cultures

Marie-Lucie Tarpent has done a lot of work to understand and record different languages. She is especially known for her studies of the Nisga'a language. This language is spoken by the Nisga'a people in British Columbia, Canada.

In the 1990s, she helped expand an earlier book about the plants used by the Gitksan people. She added details about the Gitxsan language to this book, which was published in 1997. She also studied how the Nisga'a and Gitksan languages count things.

Marie-Lucie Tarpent also worked with another linguist, Daythal Kendall. They showed that two language groups, Takelma and Kalapuyan, were not as closely related as some people thought.

She has greatly helped us learn more about the Nisga'a and Southern Tsimshianic languages. She focused on how small parts of words, called morphemes, are very important in these languages.

In 2007, Marie-Lucie Tarpent joined a big project called "Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages." This project aimed to record and study languages spoken in Alaska and nearby areas.