Paul Zumthor, CQ (5 August 1915 – 11 January 1995)[1][2] was a medievalist, literary historian, and linguist.
He studied in Paris with Gustave Cohen and worked on French etymology with Walther von Wartburg.
[6] He held two major professorial positions at the University of Amsterdam from 1952 and at the Université de Montréal from 1971 to 1980, when he later became emeritus.
Zumthor was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1969, this was changed into a foreign membership in 1971.
[7] Within J. M. Coetzee's novel Elizabeth Costello, Zumthor is quoted at length by a character Emmanuel Egudu.