Cunning Linguists

[Handrejka 1,899]

Well, everyone else is starting threads on topics only they'll be interested in so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. What elderly or ill linguistic/language scholars can we think of?

Chomsky is the obvious one, there's also Eugene Nida whom I've mentioned before.

 

Then we have

Charles Randolph Quirk, Baron Quirk - born 1920, obit guaranteed, he's also a Manxman which was going to be other topic.

William Labov - born 1927, obit likely

George Steiner - born 1929, obit guaranteed

Richard Gendall - born 1924, Cornish language expert , obit possible

[Lard Bazaar 3,799]

Well, everyone else is starting threads on topics only they'll be interested in so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. What elderly or ill linguistic/language scholars can we think of?

Chomsky is the obvious one, there's also Eugene Nida whom I've mentioned before.

 

Then we have

Charles Randolph Quirk, Baron Quirk - born 1920, obit guaranteed, he's also a Manxman which was going to be other topic.

William Labov - born 1927, obit likely

George Steiner - born 1929, obit guaranteed

Richard Gendall - born 1924, Cornish language expert , obit possible

 

 

I'm only interested in pizza, fags and shagging - look out for a new thread, coming soon

[Star Crossed 33]

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I picked an old thread with an appropriate title.

During a recent prolonged absence from cyberspace, I made a habit of eating my breakfast whilst watching episodes of Kojak (Savalas as Theo Kojak delivers some of the coolest, funniest, most cutting, most surreal cop-chic repartee I've ever heard, which is the reason for this post's inclusion in this thread.) Anyhoo, at the end of the credits sequence comes the name of the executive producer, Matthew Rapf. I became almost obsessed with the concept of putting Rapf in my deadpool until, about a week ago, I got back online and discovered he'd died in 1991. Gutted? You bet, baby, you bet...

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,218]

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I picked an old thread with an appropriate title.

During a recent prolonged absence from cyberspace, I made a habit of eating my breakfast whilst watching episodes of Kojak (Savalas as Theo Kojak delivers some of the coolest, funniest, most cutting, most surreal cop-chic repartee I've ever heard, which is the reason for this post's inclusion in this thread.) Anyhoo, at the end of the credits sequence comes the name of the executive producer, Matthew Rapf. I became almost obsessed with the concept of putting Rapf in my deadpool until, about a week ago, I got back online and discovered he'd died in 1991. Gutted? You bet, baby, you bet...

You mean you were on't dole.

I have caught a few episodes of Kojak on my days off.

Probably the best line he ever delivered was in a scene where he was told that the Ex con he had put away, and was now being stalked by, couldnt be arrested for harrassing him.

Looking totally pissed off he said "Tweet, tweet babe..Im a cop in a cage..."

Class.

Anyhow, Ive got sod all to say regarding the thread as its way above my thick head.

[Ra Ra Rasputin 99]

Well, everyone else is starting threads on topics only they'll be interested in so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. What elderly or ill linguistic/language scholars can we think of?

Chomsky is the obvious one, there's also Eugene Nida whom I've mentioned before.

 

Then we have

Charles Randolph Quirk, Baron Quirk - born 1920, obit guaranteed, he's also a Manxman which was going to be other topic.

William Labov - born 1927, obit likely

George Steiner - born 1929, obit guaranteed

Richard Gendall - born 1924, Cornish language expert , obit possible

 

After spending an entire afternoon doing literature searches and trying to sort out one of my lecturer's bibliographies, I could no doubt add plenty more linguists to my own personal hitlist...

[TAFKAG 70]

Actually, forget what I said before. I have a contender for most significant (i'm growing to hate that word) death of the year.

 

It's Marie Smith Jones. With her a death a whole language and culture died, a language we'll never hear spoken by a native speaker again, now that, my friend is what I call significant. Oh and she's American by the way, so I don't want to hear any of of that "not known outside the US" crap. You should know about this sort of stuff.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Smith

It's probably of little concern to most, but another language has bitten the dust with the death of the Andaman Islands' Boa Sr. I don't know why, but this depresses me more than the loss of Hollywood starlets to drugs or some such thing.

[themaninblack 2,112]

Actually, forget what I said before. I have a contender for most significant (i'm growing to hate that word) death of the year.

 

It's Marie Smith Jones. With her a death a whole language and culture died, a language we'll never hear spoken by a native speaker again, now that, my friend is what I call significant. Oh and she's American by the way, so I don't want to hear any of of that "not known outside the US" crap. You should know about this sort of stuff.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Smith

It's probably of little concern to most, but another language has bitten the dust with the death of the Andaman Islands' Boa Sr. I don't know why, but this depresses me more than the loss of Hollywood starlets to drugs or some such thing.

 

Shit happens. 99% of all species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct. It's just the way it goes. Nothing lasts forever, including clichés such as these..

[honez 79]

Actually, forget what I said before. I have a contender for most significant (i'm growing to hate that word) death of the year.

 

It's Marie Smith Jones. With her a death a whole language and culture died, a language we'll never hear spoken by a native speaker again, now that, my friend is what I call significant. Oh and she's American by the way, so I don't want to hear any of of that "not known outside the US" crap. You should know about this sort of stuff.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Smith

It's probably of little concern to most, but another language has bitten the dust with the death of the Andaman Islands' Boa Sr. I don't know why, but this depresses me more than the loss of Hollywood starlets to drugs or some such thing.

 

Shit happens. 99% of all species that have ever lived on this planet are extinct. It's just the way it goes. Nothing lasts forever, including clichés such as these..

Au contraire, MiB. Taxes and syphilis, for example.

And Clive Dunn for that matter.

QED.

[Handrejka 1,899]

Actually, forget what I said before. I have a contender for most significant (i'm growing to hate that word) death of the year.

 

It's Marie Smith Jones. With her a death a whole language and culture died, a language we'll never hear spoken by a native speaker again, now that, my friend is what I call significant. Oh and she's American by the way, so I don't want to hear any of of that "not known outside the US" crap. You should know about this sort of stuff.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Smith

It's probably of little concern to most, but another language has bitten the dust with the death of the Andaman Islands' Boa Sr. I don't know why, but this depresses me more than the loss of Hollywood starlets to drugs or some such thing.

 

Thanks TAFKAG. I wonder if S om a Devi Dura is atill alive. She made the news a couple of years ago and was in poor health then but no date of death.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7189898.stm

[DevonDeathTrip 2,348]

Actually, forget what I said before. I have a contender for most significant (i'm growing to hate that word) death of the year.

 

It's Marie Smith Jones. With her a death a whole language and culture died, a language we'll never hear spoken by a native speaker again, now that, my friend is what I call significant. Oh and she's American by the way, so I don't want to hear any of of that "not known outside the US" crap. You should know about this sort of stuff.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Smith

It's probably of little concern to most, but another language has bitten the dust with the death of the Andaman Islands' Boa Sr. I don't know why, but this depresses me more than the loss of Hollywood starlets to drugs or some such thing.

 

So it should depress you, the damage visted on the Andamanese and Onge tribes by the forces of Western Imperalism - and more latterly colonisation from the Indian mainland - amount to nothing less than genocide.

 

Talking of the Andaman Islands, I've had a long fascination with the good folks of North Sentinel Island, who are possibly the least understood people on earth. If anyone else is interested in this sort of thing and has a few minutes to spare, the article by Adam Goodheart is a very informative read:

 

http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/goodh...p-goodheart.htm

 

For further reading I can also highly recommend "Land of Naked People" by Dr Madhusree Mukerjee.

[Handrejka 1,899]

Eugene Nida has died

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Nida

[gcreptile 10,913]

Currently oldest person with non-longevity claim to fame, economist and linguist Zhou Youguang has outlived his last child according to wikipedia:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Youguang

 

The source is this article in mandarin: http://www.chinanews.com/cul/2015/01-26/7005575.shtml. It already happened in late January, but I just noticed it now, a bit late considering he is the joker of my theme team.

 

Now, if one uses the google translator from simplified chinese to english, one can read a bit more information. For example a passage that gets translated as this: "Mr. Xiaoping told me that he had just returned to his home where his father due to post-operative recovery was not good enough , going to rest for a week to go to his father . And then go about my week stay home, the activities to the weeks old report ."

 

I assume, it means that Youguang had an operation with a bad recovery, although it could also be the son that had the operation although the previous section said that his death came unexpected...

 

Edit: Something else, the list of oldest famous living people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_living_centenarians is predominantly male, but the list of oldest people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_verified_oldest_people is generally female....interesting...

[gcreptile 10,913]

Some news on 110-year old economist and linguist Zhou Youguang, the currently oldest living celebrity famous for something else than their age:

 

http://derstandard.at/2000015697344/Chinas-mutigstes-Reformmagazin-steht-vor-dem-Aus(link in german)

 

China's government is shutting down its only reformist political magazine. The annual conference meeting was cancelled, but Zhou Youguang wanted to attend and talk about his new book, so there's a 110-year old man (wikipedia says he's 109, though) writing a new book and attending a conference! Sounds more like a potential record breaker than a hit on a team.

 

The relevant excerpts are these:

Als weitere Schikane wurde der Zeitschrift erstmals seit ihrer Gründung 1981 ihr jährliches Frühlingstreffen zur Aussprache der Redaktion mit den Autoren verboten. 240 Personen waren eingeladen. In der April-Nummer beschrieb das Magazin, mit welchen Tricks die Behörden das Treffen strichen. (...) Die Mai-Ausgabe druckte dann demonstrativ eine Auswahl der Redebeiträge, die nicht zustande kamen. Der berühmte 110-jährige Universalgelehrte und Schöpfer der chinesischen Schriftreform, Zhou Youguang, wollte über sein neues Buch gegen die Unterdrückung des freien Wortes sprechen."

 

Sort of translation: To add another obstacle, for the first time since its inception in 1981, the magazine was prohibited from holding it's annual spring meeting where the editorial board and its authors met. 240 people were invited. In its April issue, the magazine described the tricks the administration used to cancel the meeting. The May issue provocatively released a selection of the prevented speeches. The famous 110-old polymath Zhou Youguang wanted to talk about his new book on the suppression of free speech."

[YoungWillz 20,891]

Anthony C Yu, translator of "The Journey To The West" (or as we know it in the UK, the story of the TV series "Monkey"), 76. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/arts/anthony-c-yu-translator-of-the-saga-of-a-chinese-pilgrimage-dies-at-76.html?_r=0

[RadGuy 1,614]

Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist and not so popular deadpool pick, turns 110 tomorrow (it's already "tomorrow" in China).

[drol 11,735]

Southern Italian linguist and former minister Tullio De Mauro has died aged 84.

http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2017/01/05/news/morto_tullio_de_mauro-155445600/

[drol 11,735]

Handsome man, wasn't he?

[drol 11,735]

Sorry for the dimensions, but this was his best picture.

Edited January 5, 2017 by DevonDeathTrip
posts moved to linguists thread, just because it doesn't see much action

[drol 11,735]

Italian expert of American (and British) literature Claudio Gorlier died yesterday aged 90. Many years ago he held a televised lesson to explain Joyce's Ulysses.

http://www.corriere.it/cultura/17_gennaio_04/morto-claudio-gorlier-studioso-americanista-ccef8fe2-d2ac-11e6-af42-cccac9ae7941.shtml

[msc 18,379]

Italian expert of American (and British) literature Claudio Gorlier died yesterday aged 90. Many years ago he held a televised lesson to explain Joyce's Ulysses.

http://www.corriere.it/cultura/17_gennaio_04/morto-claudio-gorlier-studioso-americanista-ccef8fe2-d2ac-11e6-af42-cccac9ae7941.shtml

 

That must have been a TV show so long it'd fit in the Guinness book of records.

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,218]

Southern Italian linguist and former minister Tullio De Mauro has died aged 84.

http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2017/01/05/news/morto_tullio_de_mauro-155445600/

Any fucker can speak Italian, you just wave your arms about a lot like a demented chimp while shouting.

[drol 11,735]

 

Southern Italian linguist and former minister Tullio De Mauro has died aged 84.

http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2017/01/05/news/morto_tullio_de_mauro-155445600/

Any fucker can speak Italian, you just wave your arms about a lot like a demented chimp while shouting.

 

I'm bringing my left hand to the right elbow to disagree.

[RadGuy 1,614]

As mentioned elsewhere, the father of Pinyin (romanization of Chinese characters), Zhou Youguang, has died, one day after turning 111.

 

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/world/asia/zhou-youguang-who-made-writing-chinese-as-simple-as-abc-dies-at-111.html?referer=https://www.google.com/

[YoungWillz 20,891]

On ‎5‎/‎7‎/‎2009 at 19:35, Handrejka said:

Well, everyone else is starting threads on topics only they'll be interested in so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. What elderly or ill linguistic/language scholars can we think of?

Chomsky is the obvious one, there's also Eugene Nida whom I've mentioned before.

 

Then we have

Charles Randolph Quirk, Baron Quirk - born 1920, obit guaranteed, he's also a Manxman which was going to be other topic.

William Labov - born 1927, obit likely

George Steiner - born 1929, obit guaranteed

Richard Gendall - born 1924, Cornish language expert , obit possible

Randolph Quirk dead.http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-quirk/3254

[deadsox 892]

I took a quick look at the title of this thread and thought it was about something else.  Never mind.