In Memoriam: Nancy Currier Dorian

Nancy Currier Dorian, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics in German and Anthropology, passed away April 24, 2024. During her over 40-year career, Professor Dorian’s work researching the East Sutherland dialect of Scottish Gaelic left an indelible mark on her field.

Born in New Brunswick, N.J., in 1936, Dorian developed an interest in languages well before becoming a scholar of linguistics. As a teen, she even embarked upon learning modern Greek for fun.

Dorian earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in German at Connecticut College for Women in 1958. She spent the following year as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bonn and Free University of Berlin. Upon returning to the States, she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees, both in linguistics, at the University of Michigan.

In 1965, Professor Dorian joined Bryn Mawr’s German and Linguistics departments as a lecturer. She was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1966 and to Professor of Linguistics in German and Anthropology in 1978. She was a dedicated teacher to many generations of Bryn Mawr students and in 1986 the College awarded her the Lindback Foundation Award for distinguished teaching.

Professor Dorian’s scholarship focused on the endangered East Sutherland dialect of Scottish Gaelic, particularly in the villages of Bora, Golspie, and Embo. She was recognized as a leader in the study of language decline and her book Language Death: The Lifecycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect remains a seminal text for students of linguistics. Her publications include six books, more than 70 articles and chapters, and five translations and oral histories.

Professor Dorian received the Kenneth L. Hale Prize for outstanding work on the documentation of an endangered language from the Linguistics Society of America in 2012 and received an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Glasgow for contributions to Celtic studies in 2015. She was also featured in the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Alba documentary film “Mar a chunnaic mise: Nancy Dorian agus a’ Ghàidhlig” in 2005.

Professor Dorian’s work left a lasting scholarly legacy. Her work researching languages as their speakers dwindled in numbers, was a way to provide an ongoing record of cultures and their means of communicating before that information was permanently lost.

President Emeritus Mary Patterson McPherson described her, saying, “Nancy was both an admired linguistic scholar—working for years on the causes of and the consequences from dying languages—and a creative and beloved teacher.”

After her time at Bryn Mawr, Professor Dorian continued her work with Sutherland Gaelic speakers over the phone and even continued writing on the subject, publishing her final book in 2014. Her friends and family celebrated her life with a memorial service held in June.