Professor Sir Harold Bailey: An appreciation

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilya Gershevitch
Keyword(s):  
London School ◽  
British Isles ◽  
European Language ◽  
Ancient India ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Iranian Studies ◽  
Permanent Home ◽  
Queens College ◽  
Oriental Studies

This chapter details the life and career of Sir Harold Bailey. It also describes the contents of his library. Bailey joined the Ancient India and Iran Trust in order to secure a permanent home for his books, where they would serve no longer only himself as they had done in Southacre and in Queens' College, but also other scholars both during and after his lifetime. His is a library that eminently deserves preservation, since for the continuation of research on the lines evolved by him there is not to be found in the British Isles a compact study space more thoughtfully equipped. Dating back longest is the acquisition of Iranological books and articles. These Bailey began to assemble when in 1929 he became at the London School of Oriental Studies the first holder of its Lectureship in Iranian Studies. If the Irano-Indian holdings are impressive, so is the library's equipment in respect of Indo-European language groups other than the Indo-Iranian.

The Soviet Nationalities Collection at Columbia University

Slavic Review ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-293
Author(s):  
Susan Cook Summer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
European Language ◽  
Interlibrary Loan ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
The 1960S

The Soviet Nationalities Collection at Columbia University is one of the largest and most varied collections of its kind in the nation. Established in the 1960s, it now numbers more than 15,000 volumes in forty-seven different languages from the Altaic, Transcaucasian, Uralic, Paleo-Siberian, and Indo-European language groups. It grows at a rate of about 500 books a year.The collection supports instruction and research in fields including language and literature, political science, economics, history, folklore, religion and philosophy, and the arts. Although not cataloged until recently, the collection has long been used by scholars from research centers at Columbia, such as the Harriman Institute for the Advanced Study of the Soviet Union, the Center for the Study of Central Asia, the Program on Soviet Nationality Problems, and the Department of Slavic Languages. Its reputation growing by word-of-mouth, the collection has also attracted visiting scholars and requests through interlibrary loan.

On the Etymology of the River-name Ruhr and Some of its Central-European Cognates: Celtic or not Celtic – That is the Question

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-32
Author(s):  
Harald Bichlmeier
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Correct Result ◽  
Language Group ◽  
European Language ◽  
Central European ◽  
Language Groups

Traditionally, the river-nameRuhr and its siblings are said to be derived from the root PIE *reuH - 'tear up, dig up' (outdated form of reconstruction: *reu-, *reu-, *ru - [IEW 868]) and they are regarded as part of the so-called 'Old European hydronymy'. Reviewing the literature on the river-namesRuhr, Rur, Rulles, and the place-name Ruhla, we find that two different pre-forms tend to be reconstructed, *rūr° and * rur°. It can be shown that by applying a sound-law generally accepted in Indo-European linguistics (Dybo's Law), the pre-form must be reconstructed as * rur°, even if we start from the root mentioned above (PIE *ruH-ró- > Late (Western-)PIE * ruró-). But as the semantics of that root appears to be not very satisfactory, further roots are tried as starting-points for etymologizing the names in question. The following roots are possible from a structural/phonological point of view: a) PIE *h3reuH- 'shout, roar': PIE *h3ruH-ró- > late PIE *(h3)ruró -; b) PIE *h2 reu - 'shine, sparkle (reddishly)': PIE * h2 ru- ró- > late PIE *( h2 )ruró -; c) PIE *h3 reu - 'move quickly, dash forward': PIE * h3 ru- ró- > late PIE *(h3)ruró -. Two language groups are attested in the areas, where the rivers are situated: Germanic and Celtic. But out of the three roots just mentioned none is continued in Germanic and only PIE *h2 reu- 'shine, sparkle (reddishly)' and PIE *h3 reu- 'move quickly, dash forward' are continued in Celtic. A formation from another root, PIE * preu- 'jump' (* pru-ró- > PCelt. * []ruró-) would give the correct result in Celtic, but the root does not have descendants in any Celtic language. Thus we arrive at the result that the river names, which are all on potentially Celtic territory, are most probably Celtic. The names meant either 'the quick(ly flowing) one' or 'the gleaming one' – both solutions are semantically typical for the oldest layers of hydronyms. No decision between these two results is possible. But as we can offer an etymology now anchored in a single Indo-European language (group), there is no reason anymore to regard these names as 'voreinzelsprachlich' and thus part of the 'Old European hydronymy'. It remains to be researched, whether all the hydronyms traditionally derived from the root PIE *reuH - 'tear up, dig up' (outdated form of reconstruction: *reu-, *reu-, *ru-) are really necessarily to be connected with this root, now that three other roots (PIE *h3reuH- 'shout, roar', PIE * h2reu- 'shine, sparkle (reddishly)', PIE *h3 reu - 'move quickly, dash forward') offer phonologically and semantically possible starting-points for etymologies.

Orthography in the Gold Coast

Africa ◽  
1933 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. Dickens
Keyword(s):  
Gold Coast ◽  
London School ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Oriental Studies ◽  
African Linguistics

The formation has been recently announced of a Department of African Linguistics at the London School of Oriental Studies. ‘The new department’, it is stated in a recent number of Le Maître Phonétique, ‘is to apply phonetics to the analysis of the structure of African languages, and will no doubt be instrumental in furthering the movement for introducing phonetic systems of spelling into Africa.’ It may be useful in the early stages of the project to call attention to some of the difficulties which have to be overcome in carrying out the latter implied part of it, and to make a suggestion as to a means of overcoming them. It is therefore proposed to give an account of the introduction of a phonetic script into one African territory, and incidentally to advocate a slight but desirable revision of the Institute's memorandum Practical Orthography of African Languages.

scholarly journals THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES.

1917 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 394-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL
Keyword(s):  
London School ◽  
Oriental Studies
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document