Joshua Fishman

Joshua Fishman (Yiddish: שיקל פֿישמאַן — Shikl Fishman; July 18, 1926 – March 1, 2015) was an American linguist who specialized in the sociology of language, language planning, bilingual education, and language and ethnicity.

Early life and education Joshua A. Fishman (Yiddish name Shikl) was born and raised in Philadelphia. His sister was the poet Rukhl Fishman. which emphasized mastery of the Yiddish language along with a focus on literature, history, and social issues. He graduated from Olney High School. He attended the University of Pennsylvania on a Mayor's Scholarship, 1944-1948, earning a B.S. and an M.S., in history and psychology, respectively. He went on to get a PhD in social psychology from Columbia University in 1953.

He is the father of Monele Fishman, David Fishman and Avi Fishman.

Career After graduating, he studied Yiddish with Max Weinreich during the summer of 1948. During that time, he received a prize from the YIVO (Institute for Yiddish Research) for a monograph on bilingualism. In 1953, he completed his Ph.D. in social psychology at Columbia University The Expanded GIDS was based on this and is used by Ethnologue.

According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, "The founder and general editor of the leading refereed publication International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Fishman created an intellectual platform that has greatly facilitated the introduction and dissemination of novel models and revolutionary theories that have led to numerous academic debates, syntheses and cross-fertilizations. He has often acted as an epistemological bridge between, and antidote for, parallel discourses."

And "One ought to assess the breadth and depth of Fishman’s work through a combined Jewish-sociolinguistic lens." the other a single volume edited by Cooper and Spolsky.

In 1999, Fishman received the Itzik Manger Prize for contributions to Yiddish letters.

In 2004, he was awarded the Linguapax Prize.

On September 10, 2006, Fishman was honored by a one-day symposium at the University of Pennsylvania, commemorating his 80th birthday. He died in the Bronx, New York, on March 1, 2015, at the age of 88.

Archives In 1994 the Stanford University Libraries established the 'Joshua A. Fishman and Gella Schweid Fishman Family Archives' within their Special Collections Section. The archive contains drafts of subsequently published books and articles, course outlines, lectures given, professional correspondence, family correspondence, photographs, audio-tapes, video-tapes, and other materials pertaining to Fishman's work.