 In June 1950, he received a Master of Arts from Columbia University, where he studied under André Martinet.With funding from the Ford Foundation, he studied the Uralic and Altaic languages at the University of Helsinki from 1951 to 1953 and Nivkh and Hokkaido at the University of Tokyo from 1953 to 1954.He earned his doctorate from the Department of Uralic and Altaic languages at Columbia University in December 1955.