Ives Goddard

Robert Hale Ives Goddard, III (1941–) is curator emeritus in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. He is widely considered the leading expert on the Algonquian languages and the larger Algic language family.

Early life and education

Ives Goddard received his B.A. from Harvard College in 1963 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1969. From 1966–1969 he was a junior fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows.

Career

After earning his doctorate, Goddard taught at Harvard as a junior professor.

In 1975, he moved to the Smithsonian Institution. His own field research has concentrated on the Delaware languages and Meskwaki (Fox). He is also known for work on the Algonquian Massachusett language, and the history of the Cheyenne language. He has also published on the history of the Arapahoan branch of Algonquian, whose two living representatives are Arapaho and Gros Ventre.

Goddard is a prominent figure in the study of the methodology of historical linguistics. He has played a significant role in critiquing crank historical linguistic work.