Wolf Leslau

Wolf Leslau (November 14, 1906 - November 18, 2006) was a scholar of Semitic languages and one of the foremost authorities on Semitic languages of Ethiopia.

Life

Born in Poland, he studied Semitology at the University of Vienna and Sorbonne. When Nazi Germany conquered France, he was sent to a concentration camp, from which he escaped in 1942 to the United States. In 1955, he joined the faculty of University of California, Los Angeles where his efforts were instrumental in establishing the Department of Near Eastern Studies. He held the position of Professor Emeritus at UCLA until his death at the age of 100.

Leslau specialized in previously unrecorded and unstudied Semitic languages of Ethiopia. Between 1946 and 1976, he spent considerable amount of time in Ethiopia working with native informants on such languages as Gurage and Harari, as well as Amharic, Tigrinya and Ge'ez.

Works

* 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.
* 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 Hauge: 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: "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)

References

* Devens, Monica S., "On the Occasion of Wolf Leslau's 100th Birthday", in: "Journal Aethiopica" 9 (2006), pp. 220-221.

Festschriften

* Segert, Stanislav & András J. E. Bodrogligeti (eds.), "Ethiopian Studies: Dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the Occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, November 14th, 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 14th, 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 14th, 1996". Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1996, 239 p. (ISBN 3-447-03830-6).

External links

* cite web
last = Stewart
first = Jocelyn Y.
title = Wolf Leslau, 100; UCLA professor sought out and recorded Ethiopian languages
work =
publisher = Los Angeles Times
date = 23 November 2006
url = http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-leslau23nov23,1,2463141.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
accessdate = 2006-11-23
* cite web
last = Hudson
first = Grover
title = Obituary: Wolf Leslau, 1906-2006
publisher = Linguist List
date = 24 November 2006
url = http://linguistlist.org/issues/17/17-3470.html
* cite web
title = Remembering a friend of Ethiopia: Wolf Leslau, 1906-2006
publisher = Walta Information Center
url = http://www.waltainfo.com/Analysis/2006/Nov/21050.htm