The overwhelmingly sad news of the passing in his sleep this morning in Turku, Finland of Raimo Anttila after a long illness came to me via e-mail from his loving partner, Anna-Maija Raanamo.

As I wrote in the Preface of my recent book, The Logic of Language: A Semiotic Study of Speech, “I would like to acknowledge the influence on my understanding of language as a product of history of my friend and former colleague at UCLA, Raimo Anttila, whose book Historical and Comparative Linguistics, with its semiotic orientation, remains the best introduction to the field and has been a beacon for me over the many years that its author and I have been friends.”

Raimo will be deeply missed by all who knew him as a friend and mentor.

MICHAEL SHAPIRO