Nils Holmer


Nils Holmer was a Swedish linguist, whose primary early focus of study was Celtic languages.

Career

Holmer carried out significant fieldwork into Scottish Gaelic, in particular the southern dialects of Kintyre, Arran and Argyll and published several key books and articles on the topic. He was professor of linguistics at Lund University between 1949-1969 and is notable as the only Swede to have three articles published in the journal Language.
Unusually, he carried out fieldwork across a wide range of languages across several continents, including Irish, Basque, Siouan languages, Algonquian languages, Iroquoian languages, the Central American language Kuna and the South American language of Choco and Wayuu and Australian Aboriginal languages.