Born in Estonia, Puhvel fled his country with his family in 1944 following the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states, and eventually ended up in Canada.
Gaining his Ph.D. in comparative linguistics at Harvard University, he became a professor of classical languages, Indo-European studies and Hittite at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he founded the Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology and was Chairman of the Department of Classics.
[6][5] While a high school student in Sweden, Puhvel decided that he wanted to become a scholar in Indo-European linguistics.
He studied Latin, French and Ancient Greek at McGill University, where he graduated with an MA in comparative linguistics in 1952, for which he earned the Governor General's Gold Medal.
Puhvel gained his PhD in comparative linguistics at Harvard University in 1959 with a dissertation on the laryngeal theory.
[6][5] Puhvel taught classical languages and comparative Indo-European linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1958.
[4] Prominent students of Puhvel at UCLA include anthropologist C. Scott Littleton and folklorist Donald J.
[5] He resides in Encino, Los Angeles,[4] but spends every summer at the restored family farm in Kõrvemaa, Estonia.