Yamuna Kachru (यमुना काचरु, (Devanagari)) (5 March 1933 in Purulia, West Bengal, India - 19 April 2013 in Urbana, Illinois[1]) was Professor Emerita of Linguistics at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
She earned her PhD as SOAS in 1965 with a dissertation entitled A Transformational Treatment of Hindi Verbal Syntax,[2] the first in-depth analysis of the Hindi language to utilize the Chomskyan framework.
She taught Hindi at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London until she moved to the University of Illinois (UIUC) with her husband Braj Kachru in 1966.
[1][5] Kachru was the 2004 recipient of the Padmabhushan Dr. Moturi Satyanarayan Award[6] In September 2006 she received the Presidential Award from the President of India from the president Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam for her contributions to the study of Hindi language.
[7][1] She was the wife of fellow linguist Braj Kachru, with whom she frequently collaborated.