Summary of Academic Career:
PhD London (German) 1960; Lecturer in Modern Languages, Fourah Bay College (University College Sierra Leone) 1961-62; Lecturer and Reader in West African Languages, SOAS (University of London) 1962-83 (early retirement 1983), also Hans Wolff Visiting Professor, Indiana University 1969, Director International African Institute 1974-80; since 1983: Director, Linguasphere Observatory (France & Wales), co-Director of Leverhulme Project on Language-Mapping (SOAS, 1994-96).
Present appointment: independent researcher based in UK (retired since 1983, as Emeritus Reader, but continuing active research in association with SOAS, University of London).
Publications:
Language distribution in Sierra Leone (with map), The African Language Review (Sierre Leone Language Review), 1, pp.62-67, 1962
Problems of language mapping in West Africa, Zeitschrift für Mundartforschung XXXI, 4, pp.356-361,1964
The Mel Languages: a reclassification of southern West Atlantic, African Language Studies VI, pp.1-17, 1965
Lexicon of the Mediæval German Hunt, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1965
Levels of relationship in the comparative study of African languages, African Language Studies VII, pp.171-179, 1966
A survey of the indigenous scripts of Liberia and Sierra Leone: Vai, Mende, Loma, Kpelle and Bassa, African Language Studies VIII, pp.1-51, 1967
(with P.E.H. HAIR) Le "langaige" du Brésil: a Tupi vocabulary of the 1540's, Transactions of the Philological Society 1966, 1967
The indigenous scripts of West Africa and Surinam: their inspiration and design, African Language Studies, IX, pp.156-197, 1968
Reflections on the classification of African languages, African Language Studies XI (in honour of Malcolm Guthrie), pp.147-171, 1970
Black through White: Patterns of Communication in Africa and the New World (first Hans Wolff Memorial Lecture, 1969), Bloomington: Indiana University, 1970
Language and History in Africa, London & New York: Frank Cass, 1970
A referential approach to the classification of African languages in KIM Chin-Wu & STAHLKE Herbert (eds.), 'Papers in African Linguistics', Edmonton & Champaign: Linguistic Research Inc., pp.17-32, 1971
The concept of settlement in the West African Savannah, in OLIVER Paul (ed.), 'Shelter, Sign and Symbol', London: Barrie & Jenkins, pp.197-205, 1975
The prehistorical implications of Guthrie's Comparative Bantu: problems of internal relationship, and interpretation of cultural vocabulary (2 parts), Journal of African History XVI, 4, pp.481-501; XVII, 1, pp.1-27, 1975-6
The Language Map of Africa and the adjacent islands, London:International African Institute, 1977
Francophonie et anglophonie: relations historiques et actuelles, Culture française (hiver, 1980), 4, pp.5-10, 1980
Memorandum on the transcription and harmonisation of African languages in 'African Languages: Proceedings of the meeting of experts on the transcription and harmonisation of African languages' (Niamey, July 1978), Paris: UNESCO, pp.95-99, 1981
Clavier international de Niamey, Paris: ACCT, 1984
(with Jean-Claude CORBEIL & Thierry ARNOLD) Les langues et l'éspace du français, Paris: ACCT, 1985
L'Afrique et la Lettre / Africa and the Written Word, Paris: Karthala, 1986
(with Michael Mann) Thesaurus of African Languages, London: International African Institute, 1987
Langues des Droits de l'Homme / Languages of the Rights of Man, Paris & Cressenville: Observatoire linguistique for Centre Georges Pompidou, 1989
Le français et l'anglais: langues de la liberté/ French and English: Languages of Liberty, Paris & Cressenville: Observatoire Linguistique, 1989
Le répertoire mondial des langues: théorie et pratique, Cahiers de l'Institut Linguistique de Louvain, 18.1-2, pp.141-182, 1992
L'idée d'un plurilinguisme: nos langues et l'unité de l'Europe in BLANCHET Philippe (ed.), 'Nos Langues et l'Unité de l'Europe' (2), Peeters: Louvain-la-Neuve, pp.22-31, 1992
Les Langues de France et des Pays et Régions Limitrophes au 20ème siècle, Cressenville: Observatoire Linguistique, 1993
Languages in 'Encyclopedia of the Future', New York: Macmillan, Vol. 2, pp.535-6, 1994
Un repertorio de las lenguas del mundo/ Un répertoire des langues du monde/ Un repertorio delle lingue del mondo, MicRomania (Belgique), 2.94, pp.3-17, 1994
Francophonie: au delà du franglais (rubrique) in 'Le Livre de l'Année 1994', Paris: Larousse Annuel, pp. 290-292, 1995
Unesco and Language: an independent evaluation of Unesco's activities in the field of language, Hebron (Wales): Observatoire Linguistique, 1997
Langues, droits de la personne et unité de l'Europe, in La France Latine, n.s.124 (Minorités et Modernité), pp.71-86, 1997
The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech-communities (preview edition), London: Linguasphere Observatory in assoc. with School of Oriental & African Studies, 1997
Surftipps:
- Leasing ohne Anzahlung des 3er BMW Compact.
- BMW Glossar
© 2004 The Linguasphere Observatory.