Abraham M. Halpern

Abraham "Abe" Meyer Halpern (February 20, 1914, Boston, Massachusetts – 1985) was a linguist and anthropologist who specialized in Native American Languages. In the wake of World War II he initiated a second career focusing on United States foreign policy, especially in regard to China. Late in life he resumed studying and publishing on the languages of California.

Halpern was born in Boston, where he attended Boston Latin School. He went on to receive his B.A. from Harvard College, and to do graduate research at Harvard, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago.

At Berkeley Halpern studied under Alfred L. Kroeber. In 1935, in a project funded by the California State Emergency Relief Administration, he undertook to supervise the compilation of a dictionary of the Quechan language (also formerly known as Yuma) of southern California and Arizona. (However, the dictionary was not completed as the funding organization was dismantled and replaced by the Works Projects Administration.)

At this point, on the suggestion of Kroeber, Halpern transferred to the University of Chicago to study under Harry Hoijer. He would carry out extensive linguistic fieldwork on Quechan, resulting in his Ph.D. dissertation, the first published grammar of a Yuman language. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1947.

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