Charles Otto Blagden (6September 186425August 1949) was an English Orientalist and linguist who specialised in the

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * An ...

and Pyu languages. He is particularly known for his studies of Burmese epigraphic inscriptions in the

and Pyu scripts.

Biography

Blagden was educated at Dulwich College in London, after which he obtained a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Oxford University where he read

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, graduating with a first class degree. In 1888 Blagden was appointed to the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...

civil service in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

, where he held a number of administrative and judicial posts in

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

and Singapore In 1897 he returned to England due to ill health, and the following year he became a Holt Scholar of Gray's Inn in London. In 1897 he was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

, and for the next seventeen years he practiced law, co-authoring a number of legal works, whilst continuing to publish academic articles on Malay, Mon and Pyu. In 1916 the School of Oriental Studies (later School of Oriental and African Studies) was founded as a constituent college of the University of London, in order to promote the teaching of Asian languages and to train colonial officials for the British Empire, admitting its first students in January 1917. Blagden had been acting as an examiner in Malay for the University of London since 1910, and in 1917 he was appointed as

Lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

at the School of Oriental Studies. He was later promoted to Reader and then Dean, before retiring in 1935. Blagden also cooperated with

Evangeline Edwards Evangeline Dora Edwards, known as Eve D. Edwards (13 August 1888 – 29 September 1957) taught Chinese language and Chinese literature at SOAS, University of London from 1921 to 1955, and was head of the Department of the Far East from 1937 to 1 ...

on studies of Chinese vocabularies of

(1931) and Cham (1939). Blagden acted as Vice-President of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland during 1923–1933 and 1935–1938, and then honorary Vice-President from 1938 until his death in 1949. He was also Vice-President of the

Royal Anthropological Society Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

Works

* 1898. "The medieval chronology of Malacca". * 1902. "A Malayan element in some of the languages of Southern Indo-China". In ''Journal of the Straits Branch, Royal Asian Society'' no. 38. * 1906. With Walter William Skeat. ''Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula''. London, Macmillan and Co. * 1906. "Siam and the Malay Peninsula". In ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society''. * 1909. "Notes on Malay history". In ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society''. * 1910. "Quelques notions sur la phonétique du Talain et son évolution historique". In ''Journal asiatique''. * 1912. "Notes on Talaing epigraphy". * 1914. "The Pyu inscriptions". In ''Epigraphica Indica'' vol. 12 no. 16: 127–137. * 1917. With Richard Winstedt. ''A Malay Reader''. Oxford : Clarendon Press. * 1920. ''Môn Inscriptions''. Rangoon: Government Printery and Stationary. * 1928. "The inscriptions of the Kalyāṇīsīmā, Pegu". In ''Epigraphia Birmanica''. * 1960. ''English-Malay phrase-book''. Singapore; Malays Publishing House.

References

External links

Charles Otto Blagden collections
at SOAS, University of London {{DEFAULTSORT:Blagden, Charles Otto 1864 births 1949 deaths Academics of SOAS University of London Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford English orientalists Linguists from England People educated at Dulwich College Linguists of Pyu (Sino-Tibetan)