Gerta Hüttl-Folter

Gerta Hüttl-Folter
Born
Gerta Hüttl

(1923-05-08)8 May 1923
Vienna, Austria
Died18 January 2000(2000-01-18) (aged 76)
Vienna, Austria
OccupationPhilologist
Spouse
Dean S. Worth
​
(m. 1954)​
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (1963)
Academic background
Alma mater
Doctoral advisorAndré Mazon
Academic work
DisciplinePhilology
Sub-discipline18th-century Russian philology
Institutions

Gerta Hüttl-Folter (8 May 1923 – 18 January 2000) was an Austrian philologist. After obtaining her doctorate from the University of Paris, she moved to the United States and became a full professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, before becoming the first head of the University of Vienna Department of Russian Studies. A 1963 Guggenheim Fellow, she focused on 18th-century Russian philology, with her work including such books as Foreign Words in Russian (1963) and Die Trat/Torot-Lexeme in den Altrussischen Chroniken (1983).

Biography

Early life and education

Hüttl was born on 8 May 1923 in Vienna.[1] Her father, Heinrich Hüttl, was vice-president of the Federal Police, and she had Czech and South Slavic ancestry through her mother Franziska (née Netrwal) Hüttl.[2] She graduated from a Realgymnasium with honours.[2]

When Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, her father was sent to Dachau concentration camp and the family lost their home; the noble family of Maria Razumovsky (a friend of hers from school) took her in to live in their residence Schloss Schönstein, where she became interested in Russian literature and culture.[2][3] She studied Slavic languages and literature at the University of Vienna,[1] obtaining her DPhil in 1946.[4]

She saved their Institute of Slavic Philology's library from being stolen by Soviet forces. Her parents died due to World War II, and she worked as a secondary school teacher in Russian.[3][2]

She moved out of Vienna due to sexism in academia, and she obtained her doctorat from the University of Paris in 1952, under the supervision of André Mazon. Her dissertation concluded that Vasily Trediakovsky was more influential in 18th-century Russian vocabulary than Nikolay Karamzin. It was published in 1956[1] and she won the Theodor Körner Prize in 1954 for a German translation of her dissertation.[2]

She had a daughter in 1946 and she married linguist Dean S. Worth in 1954.[2]

Academic career

After three years at Harvard University, as well as a year as a Russian instructor at Tufts University (1957), she moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and joined the University of California, Los Angeles, as an assistant professor of Slavic languages.[4][1] She was promoted to associate professor in 1961 and full professor in 1965,[1] though this had stalled due in part to anti-nepotism rules preventing spouses from working in the same department and what Nozsicska said were "obvious political considerations".[2] She returned to the University of Vienna as their first head of their Department of Russian Studies, after rejecting the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies's offer of a full professor position.[1] She served as co-editor of the Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch, as well as member of the Russian Linguistics editorial board.[3]

She published several monographs on Russian studies, with her focus on 18th-century Russian philology before shifting towards the 17th century by 1983.[1][2] In 1963,[5] She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship[6] "for studies of the historical development of secondary vocabularies in the Russian, Polish, and Serbocroatian languages",[4] allowing her to head to the Soviet Union for research.[3] In 1967, she briefly returned to the Institute for Slavic Philology as a Fulbright Lecturer.[2]

Later life, death, and legacy

She retired from the university in 1993, and became professor emeritus.[1] Even after her retirement, she was participating in seminars, including a 1999 commemorative conference on Slavic studies.[1] Werner Lehfeldt called her "one of the most outstanding representatives of the science of the Russian language", noting that "Russian studies owes [her] many important contributions."[1] BiografiA called her "one of the most important Slavic scholars in Austria".[3]

Hüttl-Folter died in Vienna on 18 January 2000.[1]

Works

  • Die Etymologie der russischen Tiernamen. Diss. Wien (1946)[3]
  • Die Bereicherung des russischen Wortschatzes im 18. Jahrhundert (1956)[4]
  • Paleosiberian Peoples and Languages: A Bibliographical Guide (1957, with Roman Jakobson and J. F. Beebe)[4]
  • Foreign Words in Russian: A Historical Sketch, 1550-1800 (1963)[a]
  • Die Trat/Torot-Lexeme in den Altrussischen Chroniken: Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte der Russischen Literatursprache (1983)[b]
  • Syntaktische Studien zur neueren russischen Literatursprache (1996)[13]

Notes

  1. ^ Reviews of this book: [7][8]
  2. ^ Reviews of this book: [9][10][11][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lehfeldt, Werner (1 March 2000). "In memoriam Gerta Hüttl-Folter". Russian Linguistics. 24 (1): 1–3. doi:10.1023/A:1007059512897. ISSN 1572-8714.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nozsicska, Alfred (1983). "Gerta Hüttl-Folter sexagenaria". Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch. 29: 117–121. ISSN 0084-0041.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Hüttl-Folter Gerta". biografiA (in German). Archived from the original on 13 December 2025. Retrieved 8 January 2026.
  4. ^ a b c d e Reports of the President and the Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 1963. p. 83-84. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025. Retrieved 4 January 2026.
  5. ^ "Gerta Hüttl-Folter Worth". Guggenheim Fellowships. Archived from the original on 4 October 2025. Retrieved 4 January 2026.
  6. ^ "Meet our Fellows - Guggenheim Fellowship — Guggenheim Fellowships: Supporting Artists, Scholars, & Scientists". Guggenheim Foundation. Archived from the original on 15 January 2026. Retrieved 12 January 2026.
  7. ^ Ferrell, James O. (1964). "Gerta Hüttl Worth, Foreign Words in Russian: A Historical Sketch, 1550-1800. "University of California Publications in Linguistics," Vol. XXVIII. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963. 132 pp. $3.00". Slavic Review. 23 (4): 788–788. doi:10.2307/2492249. ISSN 0037-6779.
  8. ^ Oinas, Felix J. (1965). "Review of Foreign Words in Russian: A Historical Sketch, 1550-1800". Language. 41 (1): 137–141. doi:10.2307/411862. ISSN 0097-8507. JSTOR 411862.
  9. ^ Freidhof, Gerd; Kosta, Peter (1985). "Review of Die trat/torot-Lexeme in den altrussischen Chroniken. Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte der russischen Literatursprache. (= Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, 420. Band)". Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch. 31: 193–200. ISSN 0084-0041. JSTOR 24747073.
  10. ^ Freydank, Dietrich (1984). "Review of Языковая ситуация Киевской Руси и ее значение для истории русского литературного языка; Die trat/torot-Lexeme in den altrussischen Chroniken. Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte der russischen Literatursprache". Russian Linguistics. 8 (3): 313–325. ISSN 0304-3487. JSTOR 40160070.
  11. ^ Leeming, H. (1985). "Review of Die trat/torot-Lexeme in den altrussischen Chroniken: Ein Beitrag zur Vorgeschichte der russischen Literatursprache". The Slavonic and East European Review. 63 (1): 104–105. ISSN 0037-6795. JSTOR 4209035.
  12. ^ Lunt, Horace G. (1985). "Linguistic Problems in Old Rus'". Slavic Review. 44 (4): 707–712. doi:10.2307/2498543. ISSN 0037-6779. JSTOR 2498543.
  13. ^ Růžička, Rudolf (1996). "Review of Syntaktische Studien zur neueren russischen Literatursprache". Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch. 42: 307–311. ISSN 0084-0041. JSTOR 24748779.
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