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Wolf Leslau

April 12, 2024

Wolf Leslau (Yiddish: וולף לסלאו; born November 14, 1906, in Krzepice, Vistula Land, Poland; died November 18, 2006, in Fullerton, California) was a scholar of Semitic languages and one of the foremost authorities on Semitic languages of Ethiopia.

Wolf Leslau
Wolf Leslau in 2004, speaking in San Diego to the 32nd North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics.
Born
Wolf Leslau

(1906-11-14)14 November 1906
Died18 November 2006(2006-11-18) (aged 100)

Youth and education edit

Leslau was born in Krzepice, a small town near Częstochowa, Poland.[1] When he was a child his family was very poor, and after contracting tuberculosis he usually had to keep a thermometer with him to monitor his body temperature, although the reasons for this are unknown. He was orphaned by the age of 10, and was raised by his brother, and received a yeshiva education.[2]

To avoid military service in the Polish army, he gave up his Polish citizenship (becoming a stateless person) and emigrated to Vienna,[2] where he would engage in Semitic studies at the University of Vienna until 1931.[3] He then went to the Sorbonne to study under Marcel Cohen. His studies included most of the Semitic languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Soqotri and Ethiopic.[4]

War years edit

Leslau was arrested by the French police and sent to an internment camp in the Pyrenees where he spent the harsh winter of 1939-1940 with his wife and child. He was later moved to Camp des Milles, a concentration camp near Aix-en-Provence.[5] However, with the assistance of an international aid group, he escaped with his family before the Nazis took over the camp in 1942.[6]

Escaping to the United States, he later became a naturalized U.S. citizen.[7] He settled in New York City, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship[8] to continue his studies of the Semitic languages in Ethiopia. He traveled throughout the country, recording endangered Ethiopian languages. For one language, Gafat, Leslau was able to locate only four speakers. It became extinct shortly thereafter.

Career in the United States and fieldwork edit

After teaching at the Asia Institute, the New School for Social Research, and for 4 years at Brandeis University,[3] he joined the faculty of University of California, Los Angeles in 1955. He was instrumental in establishing the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Center for Near East Studies.[4]

Ethiopia edit

Leslau specialized in previously unrecorded and unstudied Semitic languages of Ethiopia. His first trip to Ethiopia in 1946 was funded by a Guggenheim fellowship.[3]

South Arabia and Yemen edit

In 1950, Leslau traveled to South Arabia and Yemen. There he made field recordings at gatherings of South Arabian Bedouins and Yemenite Jews. In 1951, the recordings were issued by Folkways Records as Music of South Arabia in their "ethnic" series, FE-4221. The recordings, as well as Leslau's liner notes, are available for download from Smithsonian Folkways.[9]

Recognitions and retirement edit

In 1965 Leslau received the Haile Selassie Prize for Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa from Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.[10] He held the position of Professor Emeritus at UCLA until his death at the age of 100. He remained active in research and writing until his death. He learned to use a Macintosh computer at the age of 80.[11]

Leslau died at a nursing home in Fullerton, California, in 2006.[5]

Partial bibliography edit

  • 1938: Lexique Soqotri (sudarabique moderne) avec comparaisons et explications étymologiques. Paris: Klincksieck.
  • 1941: Documents tigrigna: grammaire et textes. Paris: Libraire C. Klincksieck.
  • 1945: Short Grammar of Tigré. Publications of the American Oriental Society, Offprint Series, No. 18. New Haven.
  • 1945: Gafat Documents: Records of a South-Ethiopic language. American Oriental series, no. 28. New Haven.
  • 1949. "Ethiopic proverbs of Chaha." Word 5, no. 2: 214-223.
  • 1950: Ethiopic Documents: Gurage. New York: Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, no. 14.
  • 1951: Falasha Anthology. Yale Judaica Series, vol. 6. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. (ISBN 0-300-03927-1)
  • 1956: Étude descriptive et comparative du Gafat (éthiopien méridional). Paris: Klincksieck, xx + 277 p.
  • 1958: Ethiopic and South Arabic contributions to the Hebrew lexicon. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 76 p.
  • 1958: The verb in Harari. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, x + 86 p.
  • 1965: An Amharic Conversation Book. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (ISBN 3-447-00553-X)
  • 1965: Ethiopians speak. Studies in cultural background. Part 1: Harari. Near Eastern Studies, no. 7. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • 1965: An annotated bibliography of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia. The Hague: Mouton.
  • 1966: Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background. Part 2: Chaha. University of California Publication. Near Eastern Studies, no. 9, 219 p.
  • 1967: Amharic Textbook. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (ISBN 3-447-00554-8)
  • 1968: Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background. Part 3: Soddo. University of California Publications. Near Eastern Studies, vol. 11.
  • 1969: Hebrew Cognates in Amharic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (ISBN 3-447-00555-6)
  • 1973: English-Amharic Context Dictionary. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xviii + 1503 p. (ISBN 3-447-01482-2)
  • 1976: Concise Amharic Dictionary. (Reissue edition: 1996) Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. (ISBN 0-520-20501-4)
  • 1979: Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic). 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. (ISBN 3-447-02041-5)
  • 1981: Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background. Part 4: Muher. Äthiopistische Forschungen, no. 11. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. (ISBN 3-515-03657-1)
  • 1982. "Harari riddles." Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 29 (1982): 39-85.
  • 1982: Gurage Folklore: Proverbs, beliefs, and riddles. Studien zur Kulturkunde, no. 63. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. (ISBN 3-515-03513-3)
  • 1983: Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background. Part 5: Chaha and Ennemor. Äthiopistische Forschungen, no. 16. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
  • 1987: Comparative dictionary of Ge‛ez (Classical Ethiopic) : Gǝ‛ǝz-English/English-Gǝ‛ǝz with an index of the Semitic roots. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xlix + 813 p.
  • 1988: Fifty Years of Research: Selection of articles on Semitic, Ethiopian Semitic and Cushitic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xlv + 503 p. (ISBN 3-447-02829-7)
  • 1989: Concise dictionary of Gǝ‛ǝz (Classical Ethiopic). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 247 p.
  • 1990: Arabic Loanwords in Ethiopian Semitic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (ISBN 3-447-03000-3)
  • 1992: Gurage Studies : Collected Articles. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xxix + 744 p. (ISBN 3-447-03189-1)
  • 1995: Reference Grammar of Amharic. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. (ISBN 3-447-03372-X)
  • 1997: Ethiopic Documents: Argobba. Grammar and dictionary. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (ISBN 3-447-03955-8)
  • 1999: Zway Ethiopic Documents. Äthiopistische Forschungen, no. 51. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (ISBN 3-447-04162-5)
  • 2000: Introductory Grammar of Amharic. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xix + 232 p. (ISBN 3-447-04271-0)
  • 2001: (with Thomas L. Kane) Amharic Cultural Reader. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (ISBN 3-447-04496-9)
  • 2004: The Verb in Mäsqan as Compared with other Gurage Dialects. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. (ISBN 3-447-04905-7)

Festschriften edit

  • Segert, Stanislav & András J. E. Bodrogligeti (eds.), Ethiopian Studies: Dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the Occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, November 14, 1981, by friends and colleagues. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1983, xii + 582 p. (ISBN 3-447-02314-7).
  • Kaye, Alan S. (ed.), Semitic studies in honor of Wolf Leslau on the occasion of his 85th birthday, November 14, 1991. 2 Vols. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz 1991, lxviii. + 1719 p. (ISBN 3-447-03168-9).
  • Hudson, Grover (ed.), Essays on Gurage Language and Culture: Dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday, November 14, 1996. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1996, 239 p. (ISBN 3-447-03830-6).

References edit

  1. ^ "Wolf Leslau, in Memoriam".
  2. ^ a b "Wolf Leslau" (web page). Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  3. ^ a b c "LINGUIST List 17.3470: Obituary: Wolf Leslau, 1906-2006". 24 November 2006. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
  4. ^ a b "Remembering a friend of Ethiopia: Wolf Leslau, 1906-200".
  5. ^ a b Stewart, Jocelyn Y. (November 23, 2006). "Wolf Leslau, 100; UCLA professor sought out and recorded Ethiopian languages - Los Angeles Times". The Los Angeles Times.
  6. ^ Kaye, Alan S. (2007). "Wolf Leslau". Language. 83 (4): 870–875. doi:10.1353/lan.2008.0014. S2CID 210073062.
  7. ^ Guthe, C. E. (1950). International directory of anthropologists. 3rd edition. Washington, D.C.: National research Council. page 108.
  8. ^ "Wolf Leslau - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation".
  9. ^ "Music of South Arabia".
  10. ^ "The History of Haile Sellassie Prizes for Ethiopian Studies 2. (18-OCT-02) Asia Africa Intelligence Wire". Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. October 18, 2002.
  11. ^ "UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies :: Wolf Leslau and Stanford J. Shaw".

External links edit

  • Stewart, Jocelyn Y. (23 November 2006). . Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2006-11-24. Retrieved 2006-11-23.
  • Hudson, Grover (24 November 2006). "Obituary: Wolf Leslau, 1906-2006". Linguist List.
  • "Remembering a friend of Ethiopia: Wolf Leslau, 1906-2006". Walta Information Center.

Relevant literature edit

  • Devens, Monica S., "On the Occasion of Wolf Leslau's 100th Birthday", in: Aethiopica 9 (2006), pp. 220–221.
  • Müller, Walter W., "Zum Gedenken an Wolf Leslau", in: Aethiopica 10 (2007), pp. 210–218.
  • Fikre Tolossa. Wolf Leslau (1906-2006). 2007. International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 3.1: 121-123.
  • Kaye, Alan S. "Wolf Leslau." Language 83, no. 4 (2007): 870-875.

April 12, 2024
wolf, leslau, yiddish, וולף, לסלאו, born, november, 1906, krzepice, vistula, land, poland, died, november, 2006, fullerton, california, scholar, semitic, languages, foremost, authorities, semitic, languages, ethiopia, 2004, speaking, diego, 32nd, north, americ. Wolf Leslau Yiddish וולף לסלאו born November 14 1906 in Krzepice Vistula Land Poland died November 18 2006 in Fullerton California was a scholar of Semitic languages and one of the foremost authorities on Semitic languages of Ethiopia Wolf LeslauWolf Leslau in 2004 speaking in San Diego to the 32nd North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics BornWolf Leslau 1906 11 14 14 November 1906Died18 November 2006 2006 11 18 aged 100 Youth and education editLeslau was born in Krzepice a small town near Czestochowa Poland 1 When he was a child his family was very poor and after contracting tuberculosis he usually had to keep a thermometer with him to monitor his body temperature although the reasons for this are unknown He was orphaned by the age of 10 and was raised by his brother and received a yeshiva education 2 To avoid military service in the Polish army he gave up his Polish citizenship becoming a stateless person and emigrated to Vienna 2 where he would engage in Semitic studies at the University of Vienna until 1931 3 He then went to the Sorbonne to study under Marcel Cohen His studies included most of the Semitic languages including Hebrew Aramaic Akkadian Soqotri and Ethiopic 4 War years editLeslau was arrested by the French police and sent to an internment camp in the Pyrenees where he spent the harsh winter of 1939 1940 with his wife and child He was later moved to Camp des Milles a concentration camp near Aix en Provence 5 However with the assistance of an international aid group he escaped with his family before the Nazis took over the camp in 1942 6 Escaping to the United States he later became a naturalized U S citizen 7 He settled in New York City and received a Guggenheim Fellowship 8 to continue his studies of the Semitic languages in Ethiopia He traveled throughout the country recording endangered Ethiopian languages For one language Gafat Leslau was able to locate only four speakers It became extinct shortly thereafter Career in the United States and fieldwork editAfter teaching at the Asia Institute the New School for Social Research and for 4 years at Brandeis University 3 he joined the faculty of University of California Los Angeles in 1955 He was instrumental in establishing the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Center for Near East Studies 4 Ethiopia edit Leslau specialized in previously unrecorded and unstudied Semitic languages of Ethiopia His first trip to Ethiopia in 1946 was funded by a Guggenheim fellowship 3 South Arabia and Yemen edit In 1950 Leslau traveled to South Arabia and Yemen There he made field recordings at gatherings of South Arabian Bedouins and Yemenite Jews In 1951 the recordings were issued by Folkways Records as Music of South Arabia in their ethnic series FE 4221 The recordings as well as Leslau s liner notes are available for download from Smithsonian Folkways 9 Recognitions and retirement editIn 1965 Leslau received the Haile Selassie Prize for Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa from Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie 10 He held the position of Professor Emeritus at UCLA until his death at the age of 100 He remained active in research and writing until his death He learned to use a Macintosh computer at the age of 80 11 Leslau died at a nursing home in Fullerton California in 2006 5 Partial bibliography edit1938 Lexique Soqotri sudarabique moderne avec comparaisons et explications etymologiques Paris Klincksieck 1941 Documents tigrigna grammaire et textes Paris Libraire C Klincksieck 1945 Short Grammar of Tigre Publications of the American Oriental Society Offprint Series No 18 New Haven 1945 Gafat Documents Records of a South Ethiopic language American Oriental series no 28 New Haven 1949 Ethiopic proverbs of Chaha Word 5 no 2 214 223 1950 Ethiopic Documents Gurage New York Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology no 14 1951 Falasha Anthology Yale Judaica Series vol 6 New Haven amp London Yale University Press ISBN 0 300 03927 1 1956 Etude descriptive et comparative du Gafat ethiopien meridional Paris Klincksieck xx 277 p 1958 Ethiopic and South Arabic contributions to the Hebrew lexicon Berkeley Univ of California Press 76 p 1958 The verb in Harari Berkeley Univ of California Press x 86 p 1965 An Amharic Conversation Book Wiesbaden Harrassowitz ISBN 3 447 00553 X 1965 Ethiopians speak Studies in cultural background Part 1 Harari Near Eastern Studies no 7 Berkeley University of California Press 1965 An annotated bibliography of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia The Hague Mouton 1966 Ethiopians Speak Studies in Cultural Background Part 2 Chaha University of California Publication Near Eastern Studies no 9 219 p 1967 Amharic Textbook Wiesbaden Harrassowitz ISBN 3 447 00554 8 1968 Ethiopians Speak Studies in Cultural Background Part 3 Soddo University of California Publications Near Eastern Studies vol 11 1969 Hebrew Cognates in Amharic Wiesbaden Harrassowitz ISBN 3 447 00555 6 1973 English Amharic Context Dictionary Wiesbaden Harrassowitz xviii 1503 p ISBN 3 447 01482 2 1976 Concise Amharic Dictionary Reissue edition 1996 Berkeley and Los Angeles University of California Press ISBN 0 520 20501 4 1979 Etymological Dictionary of Gurage Ethiopic 3 vols Wiesbaden Otto Harrassowitz ISBN 3 447 02041 5 1981 Ethiopians Speak Studies in Cultural Background Part 4 Muher Athiopistische Forschungen no 11 Wiesbaden Franz Steiner Verlag ISBN 3 515 03657 1 1982 Harari riddles Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 29 1982 39 85 1982 Gurage Folklore Proverbs beliefs and riddles Studien zur Kulturkunde no 63 Wiesbaden Franz Steiner Verlag ISBN 3 515 03513 3 1983 Ethiopians Speak Studies in Cultural Background Part 5 Chaha and Ennemor Athiopistische Forschungen no 16 Wiesbaden Franz Steiner Verlag 1987 Comparative dictionary of Ge ez Classical Ethiopic Gǝ ǝz English English Gǝ ǝz with an index of the Semitic roots Wiesbaden Harrassowitz xlix 813 p 1988 Fifty Years of Research Selection of articles on Semitic Ethiopian Semitic and Cushitic Wiesbaden Harrassowitz xlv 503 p ISBN 3 447 02829 7 1989 Concise dictionary of Gǝ ǝz Classical Ethiopic Wiesbaden Harrassowitz 247 p 1990 Arabic Loanwords in Ethiopian Semitic Wiesbaden Harrassowitz ISBN 3 447 03000 3 1992 Gurage Studies Collected Articles Wiesbaden Harrassowitz xxix 744 p ISBN 3 447 03189 1 1995 Reference Grammar of Amharic Harrassowitz Wiesbaden ISBN 3 447 03372 X 1997 Ethiopic Documents Argobba Grammar and dictionary Wiesbaden Harrassowitz ISBN 3 447 03955 8 1999 Zway Ethiopic Documents Athiopistische Forschungen no 51 Wiesbaden Harrassowitz ISBN 3 447 04162 5 2000 Introductory Grammar of Amharic Wiesbaden Harrassowitz xix 232 p ISBN 3 447 04271 0 2001 with Thomas L Kane Amharic Cultural Reader Wiesbaden Harrassowitz ISBN 3 447 04496 9 2004 The Verb in Masqan as Compared with other Gurage Dialects Wiesbaden Harrassowitz ISBN 3 447 04905 7 Festschriften editSegert Stanislav amp Andras J E Bodrogligeti eds Ethiopian Studies Dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the Occasion of his seventy fifth birthday November 14 1981 by friends and colleagues Wiesbaden Harrassowitz 1983 xii 582 p ISBN 3 447 02314 7 Kaye Alan S ed Semitic studies in honor of Wolf Leslau on the occasion of his 85th birthday November 14 1991 2 Vols Wiesbaden Harrasowitz 1991 lxviii 1719 p ISBN 3 447 03168 9 Hudson Grover ed Essays on Gurage Language and Culture Dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday November 14 1996 Wiesbaden Harrassowitz 1996 239 p ISBN 3 447 03830 6 References edit Wolf Leslau in Memoriam a b Wolf Leslau web page Retrieved 2009 04 07 a b c LINGUIST List 17 3470 Obituary Wolf Leslau 1906 2006 24 November 2006 Retrieved 2009 04 07 a b Remembering a friend of Ethiopia Wolf Leslau 1906 200 a b Stewart Jocelyn Y November 23 2006 Wolf Leslau 100 UCLA professor sought out and recorded Ethiopian languages Los Angeles Times The Los Angeles Times Kaye Alan S 2007 Wolf Leslau Language 83 4 870 875 doi 10 1353 lan 2008 0014 S2CID 210073062 Guthe C E 1950 International directory of anthropologists 3rd edition Washington D C National research Council page 108 Wolf Leslau John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Music of South Arabia The History of Haile Sellassie Prizes for Ethiopian Studies 2 18 OCT 02 Asia Africa Intelligence Wire Asia Africa Intelligence Wire October 18 2002 UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies Wolf Leslau and Stanford J Shaw External links editStewart Jocelyn Y 23 November 2006 Wolf Leslau 100 UCLA professor sought out and recorded Ethiopian languages Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on 2006 11 24 Retrieved 2006 11 23 Hudson Grover 24 November 2006 Obituary Wolf Leslau 1906 2006 Linguist List Remembering a friend of Ethiopia Wolf Leslau 1906 2006 Walta Information Center Relevant literature editDevens Monica S On the Occasion of Wolf Leslau s 100th Birthday in Aethiopica 9 2006 pp 220 221 Muller Walter W Zum Gedenken an Wolf Leslau in Aethiopica 10 2007 pp 210 218 Fikre Tolossa Wolf Leslau 1906 2006 2007 International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 3 1 121 123 Kaye Alan S Wolf Leslau Language 83 no 4 2007 870 875 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Wolf Leslau amp oldid 1213535134, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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