Blair A. Rudes

Blair Arnold Rudes (May 18, 1951 – March 16, 2008) was an American linguist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte best known for his expertise in Native American languages. He was hired in 2004 to reconstruct the long extinct Powhatan language for use in the film The New World.

Early life and education Blair A. Rudes was born on May 18, 1951, in Gloversville, New York. He said his mother was of Irish descent and his great-grandmother was Abenaki. He studied at Piseco Elementary School and Wells Central High School as a child, before going on to the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he obtained a doctorate in linguistics in 1976.

Career Rudes became an assistant professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte in 1999 and was promoted to an associate professor in 2005. His contributions to the film attracted widescale publicity, including a feature story in the Science Section of the New York Times. At Rude's request, the movie studio made his work available to Algonquian tribes located in Virginia so that members could relearn their ancestral language. At the time of his death, he was working on a three volume work titled "The Catawba Language" for the University of South Carolina Press.

Awards Dr. Rudes was the recipient of several honors. In 2006 he was recognized by the Tuscorora Indian Nation for his contributions to preserving their language and in 2007, the South Carolina General Assembly passed a resolution recognizing the work he had done for the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs. On April 5, 2008, he was posthumously awarded the University at Buffalo’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Selected bibliography Tuscarora-English / English-Tuscarora Dictionary, 1999 Endangered Languages and Literacy: Proceedings of the Fourth FEl Conference, Nicholas Ostler (editor), Blair A. Rudes (editor), Foundation for Endangered Languages, 2000