Richard Keith Sprigg
Encyclopedia
Dr Richard Keith Sprigg was a British linguist who specialized in the phonology of Asian languages. Sprigg was educated under J. R. Firth
and was a member of the first generation of professional British linguists. Also as a consequence Sprigg was an advocate of the prosodic phonological method of Firth. Sprigg worked on several Tibeto-Burman languages
including Lepcha
, and various Tibetan dialects. He taught for many years at the School of Oriental and African Studies
, and retired to Kalimpong, West Bengal
, India.
In 2000 he returned to UK and lived in retirement with his second wife Elisabeth in Crowborough
, Kent
, England
.
J. R. Firth
John Rupert Firth , commonly known as J. R. Firth, was an English linguist. He was Professor of English at the University of the Punjab from 1919-1928...
and was a member of the first generation of professional British linguists. Also as a consequence Sprigg was an advocate of the prosodic phonological method of Firth. Sprigg worked on several Tibeto-Burman languages
Tibeto-Burman languages
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Chinese members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken thoughout the highlands of southeast Asia, as well as lowland areas in Burma ....
including Lepcha
Lepcha language
Lepcha language, or Róng language , is a Himalayish language spoken by the Lepcha people in Sikkim and parts of West Bengal, Nepal and Bhutan.-Population:...
, and various Tibetan dialects. He taught for many years at the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
, and retired to Kalimpong, West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, India.
In 2000 he returned to UK and lived in retirement with his second wife Elisabeth in Crowborough
Crowborough
The highest point in the town is 242 metres above sea level. This summit is the highest point of the High Weald and second highest point in East Sussex . Its relative height is 159 m, meaning Crowborough qualifies as one of England's Marilyns...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Works of Sprigg
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1954). "Verbal Phrases in Lhasa Tibetan I".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 16.1:134-156.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1954). "Verbal Phrases in Lhasa Tibetan II".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 16.2:320-350.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1954). "Verbal Phrases in Lhasa Tibetan III".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 16.3:566-591.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1955). "The Tonal System of Tibetan (Lhasa Dialect) and the Nominal Phrase." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 17.1:133-153.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1961). "Vowel harmony in Lhasa Tibetan, prosodic analysis applied to interrelated vocalic features of successive syllables." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 24: 116–138.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1963). "A comparison of Arakanese and Burmese based on phonological formulae." Shorto, H.L. (ed.) Linguistic Comparison in South East Asia and the Pacific: 109-132.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1966). "Lepcha and Balti Tibetan, tonal or non tonal." Asia Major, New Series. 12: 185–201.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1966). “Phonological formulae for the verb in Limbu as a contribution to Tibeto-Burman comparison.” In: Charles Ernest Bazel et al. (eds.): In memory of J.R. Firth. London: Longmans: 431-53
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1967). “Balti-Tibetan Verb Syllable Finals and a Prosodic Analysis.” Asia Major 13:187-210
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1968). "The role of 'R' in the development of the modern spoken Tibetan dialects." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 21.3. 301-311
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1970). “Vyajñanabhakti, and irregularities in the Tibetan Verb.” Bulletin of Tibetology 72: 5-20
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1972). "Assimilation, and the definite nominal particle in Balti Tibetan." 'Bulletin of Tibetology 9.2: 5–19.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1972). "A Polysystemic Approach, in Proto-Tibetan Reconstruction, to Tone and Syllable-Initial Consonant Clusters". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 35.3: 546-587.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1974). "The main features of the Tibetan dialect." Bulletin of Tibetology 11.1: 11–15.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1979). “The Golok dialect and Written Tibetan past-tense verb forms”. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 42:53-60
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1980). “‘Vocalic alternation’ in Balti, the Lhasa, and the Sherpa verb, as a guide to alternation in Written Tibetan, and to Proto-Tibetan Reconstruction”. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43:110-122
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1980). "Vowel harmony in noun-and-particle words in the Tibetan of Baltistan." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43: 511–519/AOH 34: 235–43.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1981). “The Chang-Shefts tonal analysis, and the pitch variation of the Lhasa Tibetan tones.” Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 6.1:49-60
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1982). “The Lepcha language and three hundred years of Tibetan influence in Sikkim.” Journal of the Asiatic Society. 24: 16-31.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1985). “The Limbu s and t-final verb roots after Michailovsky 1979 and Weidert 1982.” Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 8/2:1-35
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1987). “‘Rhinoglottophilia’ revisited: observations on ‘the mysterious connection between nasality and glottality.’” Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 10.1. 44-62.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1989). “Oral vowels and nasalized vowels in Lepcha (Rong): as the key to a puzzling variation in spelling.’” Contributions to South-East Asian linguistics: essays in honour of Eugenie J. A. Henderson. J. H. C. S. Davidso, ed. London: School of Orientlal and African Studies. 219-235.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1993). "Controversy in the tonal analysis of Tibetan." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 56: 470–501.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1996). "My Balti-Tibetan and English dictionary, and its predecessors." The Tibet Journal 21.4: 3–22.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1997). "A Tonal Analysis of Gurung, with Separate Systems for Register and Contour Pitch Features" Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 60.3:448-454.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (2002). Balti-English English-Balti dictionary. Richmond: RoutledgeCurzon.
Reviews
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1967). Review of Grundlagen der Phonetik des Lhasa-Dialektes by Eberhardt Richter and A Manual of Spoken Tibetan (Lhasa dialect), by Kun Chang and Betty Shefts Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 30.1: 210-216.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1967). (Review of Róna-Tas Tibeto-Mongolica: The Loanwords of Mongour and the Development of the Archaic Tibetan Dialects. Indo-Iranian Monographs 7. The Hague: Mouton. 1966). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 30.1: 216-217.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1973). (Review of Paul Benedict. A Conspectus of Sino-Tibetan Cambridge University Press. 1972) Asia Major 19.1: 100-106.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1974). (Review of James A. Matisoff's) “The Loloish Tonal Split Revisited.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 37.1: 259-262.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1986). (Review of Roland Bielmeier, Das Märchen vom Prinzen Čobzaŋ). Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 9.2: 83–89.
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1989). “Review of A Grammar of Limbu by George van Driem.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 52.1:163-5
- Sprigg, Richard Keith (1990). (Nepali: A National Language and Its Literature by M. J. Hutt). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 53.1: 155-157.