Max Wheeler
Max W. Wheeler is one of the foremost British linguists with an expertise in Catalan. Professor Wheeler studied at the University of Oxford (BA 1969) and obtained his doctorate from the same university in 1975. He also studied at the University of Barcelona (between 1971 and 1973). He was Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Liverpool from 1973 to 1989 and at the University of Sussex from 1989. Since 2007 he has been Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at this University. He is a corresponding member of the Philological Section of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. He was Secretary (1980-85) and President (1993-96) of the Anglo-Catalan Society. Between 1989 and 1998 he was editor of Transactions of the Philological Society, the oldest linguistic journal in the British Isles.
Professor Wheeler is an expert in the phonology and morphology of Catalan (among other languages), both in synchrony and diachrony. His works include the volumes Catalan: a Comprehensive Grammar (with Alan Yates and Nicolau Dols; Routledge), The Phonology of Catalan (Oxford University Press), Morfologia i fonologia catalana i romànica: estudis diacrònics (IUFV / PAM) and Curial and Guelfa: a classic of the Crown of Aragon. Translated into English by Max W. Wheeler (John Benjamins) and articles such as “Cluster reduction: deletion or coalescence?” (Catalan Journal of Linguistics 4), “Vies d’analogia i d’explicació en l’evolució del pretèrit feble de la conjugació-e romànica” (Romance Studies 34), and “La morfologia flexiva (II): la flexió verbal”, a chapter in Gramàtica del català antic (IUFV, in press). He currently publishes texts and linguistic studies of the Gaelic of the Isle of Man, where he resides after retiring.
Professor Wheeler’s academic career in Catalan linguistics has earned him several awards: the Pompeu Fabra Prize (1972), the Nicolau d’Olwer Prize (1975) and the Ramon Llull International Prize (2013), for his contribution to the promotion of Catalan and its literature outside Catalan-speaking countries.