Nils Holmer

Nils Magnus Holmer (1905–1994) was a Swedish linguist.

Education and research
Holmer initially studied Russian at Lund University, where he focused on Indo-European linguistics.

In the 1920s, Holmer was a guest student at a university in Prague, where he switched to studying Celtic languages.

Holmer spent four months in the Scottish Highlands in the mid 1930s. From June to July 1935, he was in Argyllshire on the Isle of Gigha, off Kintyre where he met and conversed with almost the whole population of about 100 people. From March to June 1936 he stayed in the Rhinns (mostly at Port Charlotte where he lived with a family who spoke idiomatic Gaelic. He visited other parts of the Gaelic- and English-speaking Highlands, especially the Isle of Skye from July to August 1935, where he became acquainted with the common speech of the "Strath" between Broadford and Torrin. During this time, he amassed a significant collection of vocabulary, knowledge and tradition from the last regularly Scottish Gaelic-speaking generation in particular the southern dialects of Kintyre, Arran and Argyll whose speakers had mostly died by the 1950s. He published several books and articles on the topic and this material is the largest body of evidence for how this dialect was used and spoken in everyday life. Experts in the Gaelic Society of Inverness considered Holmer to be a gifted scholar in the area.

Holmer carried out fieldwork across a wide range of languages across several continents, including Irish, Siouan languages, the Central American language Kuna and the South American language of Choco and Wayuu.

He was "deeply immersed" in the Basque language.

His contact with the Algonquian languages, Iroquoian languages was believed by Proinsias Ó Drisceoil to have influenced what Drisceoil concluded was Holmer's "most important work" in grammatical typology.

During the 1960s and 1970s he conducted extensive fieldwork into several Australian Aboriginal languages including recording the Maric languages in the Warrego and Maranoa rivers region from several speakers in the 1960s. Holmer salvaged as much as he could from Wakka Wakka language, analysing and publishing the results. He recorded and analysed the Dhanggati or Djangadi language in 1969. His work was helpful in the efforts of the Ngabu Bingayi Aboriginal Corporation to promote study of the language at Kempsey TAFE. He also compiled a grammar and dictionary for the Mununjali language in 1978.

Career
Holmer was professor of linguistics at Lund University between 1949 and 1969.

After his retirement, he moved to Argyll, Scotland, where he lived for a few years near Oban. Whilst there, he conducted research into the surviving speakers of Loch Etive-side Gaelic.

Holmer is notable as the only Swede to have three articles published in the journal Language.

Personal life
Holmer was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1905.

He married Vanja E.

He died in Sweden in 1994.