Noam Chomsky’s wife says reports of famous linguist’s death are false

NEW YORK – Valeria Wasserman Chomsky, the wife of Noam Chomsky, said reports Tuesday that the famous linguist and activist had died were false.

“No, it is wrong,” she wrote Tuesday in response to an emailed query from The Associated Press. Noam Chomsky, 95, was hospitalized in Brazil while recovering from a stroke he suffered a year ago, Valeria Chomsky told AP last week. But the Beneficencia Portuguesa hospital in Sao Paulo said in a statement that Chomsky was discharged Tuesday to continue his treatment at home.

On Tuesday, Chomsky was a trending topic on X, as there were numerous false reports about his death. Jacobin and The New Statesman published obituaries for Chomsky, with the former changing the headline from “We Remember Noam Chomsky” to “Let’s Celebrate Noam Chomsky.” The New Statesman took down its essay by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis entirely. The Brazilian news site Diario do Centro do Mundo also took down its article announcing Chomsky’s death and published a correction.

The Chomskys have lived in Brazil since 2015. Noam Chomsky, known to millions of people for his criticism of US foreign policy, taught for decades at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2017, he moved to the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

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AP journalist David Biller reported from Rio de Janeiro.