John Alexander Holm (May 16, 1943 – December 28, 2015) was an American academic.[1] He was Chair of English
Linguistics and History of Civilizations at the
University of Coimbra,
Portugal.[2]
Holm was born in
Jackson, Michigan, and graduated from
Jackson High School in 1961.[1] He received a Ph.D. in linguistics from the
University of London in 1978 with his thesis "The creole English of Nicaragua's Miskito Coast : its sociolinguistic history and a comparative study of its lexicon and syntax."[3] He is a specialist on the history and languages of the
Caribbean peoples, and the author of many books and articles on those subjects.[4] He is editor with
Susanne Maria Michaelis of the series Contact languages : critical concepts in language studies.[5]
Thanks to the study of creoles, he showed that because of its importance in
Barbados, the white population is the starting point of most of the
English creoles that are spoken by the Indian, white and black peoples in most parts of the
Caribbean and
Carolina.
He also wrote the only one dictionary of
Bahamian English. He died on December 28, 2015, in Azeitão, Portugal from prostate cancer.[1]
Books
Dictionary of Bahamian English, (with Alison Watt Shilling). Cold Spring, N.Y.: Lexik House Publishers, 1982.
ISBN978-0-936368-03-0[6]
Central American English, (ed.) Heidelberg : J. Groos, 1983.
Review, by Steve Jones, Language in Society, Jun., 1984, vol. 13, no. 2, p. 281
Review, by J. L. Dillard, Language, Jun., 1985, vol. 61, no. 2, p. 487-489
Review, by G. G. Gilbert, American Speech Autumn, 1985, vol. 60, no. 3, p. 261-269
Pidgins and Creoles 2 vol.: v.1, " Theory and structure"; v.2, "References survey" Cambridge University Press, 1988-89 [7]
Review, Morris Goodman, in Journal of Pidgin and Creole Language, vol. 7, no. 2 (1992); p. 352-361.)
Review, by Salikoko S Mufwene, Language, Jun., 1991, vol. 67, no. 2, p. 380-387
Review by John McWhorter, Language in Society, Sep., 1991, vol. 20, no. 3, p. 477-483
Review, G. Sankoff, American Anthropologist, Jun., 1991, vol. 93, no. 2, p. 511-512
Review, by P. Muysken, Journal of Linguistics, Sep., 1990, vol. 26, no. 2, p. 509-512
An introduction to pidgins and creoles Cambridge University Press, 2000. in 596 libraries according to
WorldCat
Review, by A. S. Kaye, Language, Jun., 2002, vol. 78, no. 2, p. 362-363
Review, by Patrick O. Steinkrüger, Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, 2004, vol. 23, no. 2, p. 300-301.
Languages in contact: the partial restructuring of vernaculars Cambridge University Press, 2004. in 282 libraries according to
WorldCat
Review by Patrick O. Steinkrüger, Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, 2006, vol. 25, no. 1, p. 154-156.
Review by Raymond Hickey, Anthropological linguistics. 48, no. 3, (2006): 299
Review by Anthony P Grant, Language in Society, Apr., 2006, vol. 35, no. 2, p. 297-300
Review, by D. E. Wallcek, Language, Sep., 2006, vol. 82, no. 3, p. 683
Comparative Creole Syntax: Parallel Outlines of 18 Creole Grammars. (with Peter L. Patrick). [London]: Battlebridge, 2007.