Walter Simon
Encyclopedia
Ernest Julius Walter Simon CBE
FBA (10 June 1893, Berlin
- 22 February 1981, London
) was a sinologist and librarian
. He was born in Berlin and lived there, being educated at the University of Berlin, until he fled the Nazis to London in 1934, where he spent all the rest of his life except for brief periods as a visiting professor in various countries, teaching Chinese
at the School of Oriental and African Studies
, University of London
from 1947 to 1960. He made great contributions to historical Chinese phonology
and Sino-Tibetan
linguistics.
Simon was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE) in 1961.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
FBA (10 June 1893, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
- 22 February 1981, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) was a sinologist and librarian
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
. He was born in Berlin and lived there, being educated at the University of Berlin, until he fled the Nazis to London in 1934, where he spent all the rest of his life except for brief periods as a visiting professor in various countries, teaching Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
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...
, University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
from 1947 to 1960. He made great contributions to historical Chinese phonology
Historical Chinese phonology
Historical Chinese phonology deals with reconstructing the sounds of Chinese from the past. As Chinese is written with logographic characters, not alphabetic or syllabary, the methods employed in Historical Chinese phonology differ considerably from those employed in, for example, Indo-European...
and Sino-Tibetan
Sino-Tibetan languages
The Sino-Tibetan languages are a language family comprising, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of the number of native speakers...
linguistics.
Career
- Higher Library Service, Berlin University Library, 1919-35
- Exchange Librarian, National Library of Peking, 1932-33
- Lecturer in Chinese, University of Berlin, 1926-32; Extraordinary Professor of Chinese, University of Berlin, 1932-34
- Lecturer, School of Oriental and African StudiesSchool of Oriental and African StudiesThe 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...
, 1936; Reader in Chinese, University of London, 1938; Professor of Chinese, University of London, 1947-60, Emeritus Professor, 1960 - Visiting Professor: University of TorontoUniversity of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, 1961-62; Australian National UniversityAustralian National UniversityThe Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
, Canberra, 1962; Tokyo, Canberra and Melbourne, 1970
Simon was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE) in 1961.
Other posts
- Editor, Asia Major, 1964-75
- Honorary Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
- Honorary Vice-President, Royal Asiatic SocietyRoyal Asiatic SocietyThe Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was established, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society...
, 1976-1981 (Gold Medal, 1977)
Publications on Chinese Linguistics
Zur Rekonstruktion der altchinesischen Endkonsonanten, 2 Parts, 1928-29 Tibetisch-chinesische Wortgleiehungen: Ein Versuch, 1930- Chinese Sentence Series, 3 volumes, 1942-44
- New Official Chinese Latin Script, 1942
- Chinese National Language (Gwoyeu) Reader, 1943 (2nd edn 1954, reprinted 1972)
- 1200 Chinese Basic Characters, 1944 (4th repr. 1975)
- How to Study and Write Chinese Characters, 1944 (3rd reprint 1975)
- Structure Drill through Speech Patterns, I. Structure Drill in Chinese, 1945 (2nd edn 1959, reprinted 1975)
- Beginners' Chinese-English Dictionary, 1947 (4th edn 1975)
Publications on Tibetan Linguistics
- 1941. “Certain Tibetan suffixes and their combinations.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 5:388-89
- 1942. “Tibetan dang, cing, kyin, yin and ‘am”. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 10, 1942. 954-975.
- 1949. “The range of sound alternation in Tibetan word families.” Asia Major (New Series) 1:1-15
- 1956. "Tibetan "so" and Chinese "ya" 'Tooth'" Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 18.3 (1956): 512-513.
- 1957. “Tibetan gseb and cognate words.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 20 (1957): 523-32
- 1962. “Tibetan par, dpar, spar, and cognate words.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 25 (1962): 720-80.
- 1964. “Tibetan Lexicography and Etymological Research.“ Transactions of the Philological Society (1964): 85-107.
- 1966. “Tibetan nyin-rans and tho-rangs.” Asia Major 12, 1966. 179-84.
- 1967. “The Tibetan particle re.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 30 (1967): 117-26.
- 1968. “Tibetan re in its wider context” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 31 (1968): 555-62.
- 1969. “Cognates of Tibetan rnangs-pa (‘entire, complete’).” Academica Sinica: Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 39 (1969): 287-9.
- 1971. “Tibetan ‘fifteen’ and ‘eighteen’” Études Tibétaines: dédiées à la mémoire de Marcelle Lalou. Paris: Libraire d’Amérique et d’Orient, 1971.
- 1977. "Alternation of Final Vowel with Final Dental Nasal or Plosive in Tibetan." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 40.1 (1977): 51-57.
- 1979. “Tibetan stes, stes-te, etc. and some of the Sanskrit correspondences.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 42 (1979): 334-6.
- 1980. "Some Tibetan Etymologies of Semantic Interest." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43.1 (1980): 132-136.
External links
- Walter Simon: A scholar-Librarian and his East Asian Collection, National Library of Australia.
- Obituary, by H. L. Shorto, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 45, No. 2. (1982), p. 344, available through JSTORJSTORJSTOR is an online system for archiving academic journals, founded in 1995. It provides its member institutions full-text searches of digitized back issues of several hundred well-known journals, dating back to 1665 in the case of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society...
.