Roger Lass

Roger Lass (born January 1, 1937) is a historical linguist, currently Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University of Cape Town. He was previously an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Edinburgh.

Career Lass earned his PhD from Yale University in 1965 in Medieval English Language and Literature, and subsequently worked at Indiana University (1964–1971), the University of Edinburgh (1972–1982), and the University of Cape Town (1983–2002).

He was the editor of the third volume of The Cambridge History of the English Language.

A festschrift in honor of Lass was published in 1997 edited by Jacek Fisiak. A volume of the journal Language Sciences, entitled Collecting views on language change (Volume 24, Issues 3–4, May–July 2002, edited by Raymond Hickey) was dedicated to Lass on his sixty fifth birthday. Other essays in his honor were published in the book Motives for Language Change (CUP 2003).

Books Historical linguistics and language change Old English: A Historical Linguistic Companion The Shape of English Phonology: An Introduction to Basic Concepts Language and Time: A Historian's View On Explaining Language Change English Phonology and Phonological Theory Old English Phonology, with John Mathieson Anderson Approaches to English historical linguistics