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Michael L. Chyet

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Michael L. Chyet
Born1957 (age 68–69)
Occupations
  • Librarian
  • Linguist
Known forKurdish dictionaries
ParentStanley Chyet
Academic background
Education
  • B.A., UCLA (1980)
  • M.A., UC Berkeley (1986)
  • C.Phil., UC Berkeley (1987)
  • Ph.D., UC Berkeley (1991)
Thesis'And a Thornbush Sprang Up Between Them:' Studies of Mem û Zin, a Kurdish Romance. (1991)
Martin Schwartz
Academic work
DisciplineNear Eastern Studies
InstitutionsLibrary of Congress

Michael Lewisohn Chyet (born 1957) is an American linguist and librarian.

Early life and education

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He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio.[1] His father, Stanley Chyet, was a reform rabbi and "a prominent scholar and professor of American Jewish history, translator of Hebrew literature, [and] poet."[2] The family accompanied him on a sabbatical year in Jerusalem when Chyet was 13.[1]

He studied at a Hebrew day school as a youth and learned Latin at prep school, picking up an enthusiasm for languages at age twelve and learning to read in Yiddish, German, French and Russian.[1] He subsequently "mastered Arabic, neo-Aramaic, Turkish, Spanish, Persian, and Serbo-Croation" and "can handle around 35 languages with varying degrees of fluency" according to a 2003 Jerusalem Post profile.[1] His specialty is Kurdish, which he discovered at age 18, when he was introduced to a folk dance described as belonging to the "Kurdish minority of Eastern Turkey."[1]

Chyet studied Arabic in college, receiving his bachelor's degree from UCLA in 1980.[1] He trained with Interns for Peace in Israel in 1981.[3] He received his Ph.D. in Mideast languages and folklore from the University of California, Berkeley.[4] His dissertation was titled "'And a Thornbush Sprang Up Between Them:' Studies of Mem û Zin, a Kurdish Romance."[5]

Career

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He is a cataloguer of Middle Eastern languages at the Library of Congress, having initially joined the Library in fiscal year 2000 as a contract cataloger for Arabic.[6] As of fiscal year 2011, he was responsible for cataloging in "Kurdish; plus Arabic, Persian, Turkish."[7] Formerly, as of 1996, he was senior editor of the Kurdish Service of the Voice of America, where he worked until moving to the Library of Congress.[8][6] Before that, he was Judaica and Middle East Language specialist in the cataloging department of the University of California, Berkeley's main library.[8] He was also professor of Kurdish at the University of Paris and taught at the Washington Kurdish Institute.[1]

He has written a Kurdish-English dictionary published by Yale University Press.[9] An expanded edition in two volumes (and with a third English-Kurdish volume) was published in 2020.[10] While the first edition used only the Latin alphabet, the second edition also employed the Arabic alphabet.[11]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Golan, Ori (October 24, 2003). "The Jewish chronicler". Jerusalem Post. p. 27. ProQuest 319548418.
  2. ↑ Oliver, Myrna (October 22, 2002). "Obituaries; Stanley Chyet, 71; Rabbi Was Leader in Skirball's Creation". Los Angeles Times. p. B10. ProQuest 421731795.
  3. ↑ Shipler, David K. (February 12, 1981). "In Israeli Village, Jews and Arabs Erase Stereotypes". The New York Times. Retrieved August 27, 2026.
  4. ↑ Freestone, Julie (February 26, 1992). "Jews and the Kurds have similar history, expert says at U.C." Northern California Jewish Bulletin. Vol. 141, no. 9. p. 21. Retrieved August 27, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Ph.D.s Received". Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. 26 (2Z) [302]. December 1992. doi:10.1017/S0026318400026420. JSTOR 23063855.
  6. 1 2 Heineck, Janet (Fall 2001 – Spring 2002). "Annual Meeting 2001 San Francisco". MELA Notes (73/74): 67. JSTOR 29785763.
  7. ↑ Kopycki, William; Saleh, Marlis J. (2012). "Annual Meeting 2011 Washington, DC". MELA Notes (85): 108. JSTOR 23392504.
  8. 1 2 "Notes on Contributors - Die Autoren - Index des Collaborateurs". International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l'Education. 42 (4): [415]. 1996. JSTOR 3444920.
  9. ↑ Boustany, Nora (August 29, 2003). "Passionate Polyglot Gives Kurdish Language a Voice in the World". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 27, 2026.
  10. ↑ Khalil, Mayada Kordy (March 18, 2020). "American linguist releases new Kurdish dictionary". SBS Kurdish. Retrieved August 27, 2026.
  11. ↑ Demirel, Ferid (February 14, 2020). "Michael Chyet: Ferheng diyariya herî mezin a ji bo Birûskî bû" [Michael Chyet: The dictionary was the greatest gift for Birûski]. Kurdî Bianet (in Kurdish). Retrieved August 27, 2026.
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