Larry Trask, a world expert on Basque linguistics and the history of the Basque language, passed away on March 28, 2004. This is an archive of his site, including his Basque pages, posted here with permission of his family. Some links to external pages and to Larry's email address still exist on these archived pages. Please be aware that, for the most part, they likely do not work anymore. To learn about Larry, see this article.

I was born on 10 November 1944 in Olean, New York, and I was raised in the wilderness of western New York State, where the deer outnumber the people by at least 100:1. And I do mean `wilderness': I've seen a black bear walk past our living-room window. My mother's family came from Germany, and my father's from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. My great-great-great-grandfather Trask emigrated from Glasgow in 1800, though my surname is Scandinavian: träsk means `pond' in Norwegian.

I did a BS in Chemistry at RPI in Troy, NY, and an MA in Chemistry at Brandeis University. Then I spent a year in the Peace Corps in Turkey, teaching at a university in Ankara. This was a colorful year to be in Turkey: one afternoon there was a gunfight outside the window of the lab where I was teaching; the army moved in with tanks and occupied the campus; and I was politely informed by a left-wing organization that I would be killed if I didn't leave (nothing personal -- that's just the way things are when you're American). So I left.

After that, I came to England for a two-week holiday, which has now gotten a little out of hand: I've been here since 1970. In London, I developed an interest in linguistics and began learning Basque. Eventually I did a PhD in linguistics (on Basque) at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, under the supervision of C. E. Bazell. After teaching for a while at the Polytechnic of Central London (today the University of Westminster), I got a job teaching at the University of Liverpool. After nine years in Liverpool, I moved south to the University of Sussex (in Brighton), where I work now, in the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences.

• Go to the top of this document.
• Go back to my home page.

This page is part of Buber's Basque Page and is maintained by Blas Uberuaga. Please report any problems or suggestions to Blas. Eskerrik asko!