Donald Laycock (1936–1988) was an Australian linguist and anthropologist. He is best remembered for his work on the languages of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Biography

He was a graduate of University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia and later worked as a researcher at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

. He undertook his Ph.D. at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

in linguistics and became one among the leading authorities on the languages of Papua New Guinea.Dutton, T., Ross, M. and Tryon, D. (eds.). 1992. ''The Language Game: Papers in memory of Donald C. Laycock''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. He performed several pioneering surveys of the languages of the Sepik region of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. The first of these, his Ph.D. research under the supervision of

Stephen Wurm Stephen Adolphe Wurm ( hu, Wurm István Adolf, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist. Early life Wurm was born in Budapest, the second child to the German-speaking Adolphe Wurm and the Hungarian-sp ...

, was published as ''The Ndu languages'' (1965), and established the existence of this closely related group of languages. In subsequent surveys, Laycock found the Ndu languages were part of a larger language family extending through the middle and upper Sepik valley (the "Sepik subphylum"), and in 1973 he proposed that these languages formed part of a Sepik–Ramu phylum. This remained the general consensus in the linguistic world for over 30 years. While more recent work by

William A. Foley William A. Foley (''William Auguste "Bill" Foley;'' born 1949) is an American linguist and professor at Columbia University He was previously located at the University of Sydney. He specializes in Papuan and Austronesian languages. Foley develo ...

and Malcolm Ross has cast doubt on a link between the Ramu – Lower Sepik languages and the

Sepik languages The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than presented here. They tend to have ...

, the "Sepik subphylum" seems established as a genuine group. Laycock also first identified the Torricelli (1968) and Piawi groups of languages. He published numerous papers in linguistics and anthropology. He was described by his fellow authors of ''Skeptical'' (

David Vernon David Vernon may refer to: * David Vernon (professor) (born 1958), professor at the University of Genoa, Italy *David Vernon (writer) David Vernon (born 1965 in Canberra, Australia) is an Australian writer and publisher. He has published several ...

, Dr. Colin Groves and Simon Brown) as a 20th-century 'Renaissance Man' as his interests were wide-ranging from Melanesian languages, to channelling, Tarot cards and bawdy songs. He was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA), Vice President of the Australian Linguistic Society (ALS) and a member of Mensa. A keen member of the Australian Skeptics he entertained many people at Skeptic's conventions with his demonstrations of glossolalia and going into trances. After his death, Laycock's meticulous work on the Enochian 'language' (which was allegedly channelled to an associate of the Elizabethan mystic

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...

) was turned by a colleague into one of the very few classics of skeptical linguistics. He died, after a short illness, in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, on 27 December 1988.

Selected bibliography

* ''The Ndu language family (Sepik District, New Guinea)''. Pacific Linguistics C-1. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1965. * "Languages of the Lumi subdistrict (West Sepik district), New Guinea." ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 7: 36–66. 1968. * ''Sepik languages - checklist and preliminary classification''. Pacific Linguistics B-25. Canberra, 1973. * (with John Z'graggen) "The Sepik–Ramu phylum." In: Stephen A. Wurm, ed. ''Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene: New Guinea area languages and language study 1''. Pacific Linguistics C-38. 731–763. Canberra, 1975. * ''The Complete Enochian Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Angelic Language as Revealed to Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley'', London: Askin Publishers. 1978. * ''The Best Bawdry'', Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1982. * ''The World's Best Dirty Songs'', Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, 1987, . * (with Alice Buffet) ''Speak Norfuk Today'', Norfolk Island, 1988. * ''Skeptical'' Eds. Don Laycock,

, Colin Groves, Simon Brown, Canberra Skeptics, 1989, . * ''A Dictionary of Buin, a language of Bougainville'', ed. Masayuki Onishi (Pacific Linguistics 537, 2003). . (published posthumously)

References

* ''The Skeptic'', Vol 19, No 1, p7 * ''The Second Coming'', Barry Williams, Australian Skeptics, Sydney, 1990 * ''Aspects of meaning in fieldwork'', in Tom Dutton, Malcolm Ross and

Darrell Tryon Darrell T. Tryon (20 July 1942 – 15 May 2013) was a New Zealand-born linguist, academic, and specialist in Austronesian languages. Specifically, Tryon specialised in the study of the languages of the Pacific Islands, particularly Vanuatu, th ...

(eds)
The language game: Papers in memory of Don C. Laycock
Pacific Linguistics, C 110, 22 pp., Canberra: ANU, 1993 {{DEFAULTSORT:Laycock, Donald Australian anthropologists Australian lexicographers Linguists from Australia Linguists of Papuan languages 1936 births 1988 deaths Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Australian National University alumni Place of birth missing Mensans Paleolinguists Linguists of Sepik languages Linguists of Torricelli languages Linguists of South Bougainville languages Linguists of Norfuk 20th-century anthropologists 20th-century linguists 20th-century lexicographers People from Canberra University of Newcastle (Australia) alumni

Biography

See also

Selected bibliography

References