Harry Leonard Shorto (19 September 1919 – 30 July 1995) was a British philologist and linguist who specialized on the

Mon language The Mon language (, mnw, ဘာသာမန်, links=no, (Mon-Thai ဘာသာမည်) ; my, မွန်ဘာသာ; th, ภาษามอญ; formerly known as Peguan and Talaing) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon peopl ...

and

Mon-Khmer The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are th ...

studies. He authored both a modern Mon dictionary and a dictionary of Mon epigraphy. He worked for most of his career at the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

, University of London, finally as Professor of Mon-Khmer Studies at the University of London (

) until his retirement in 1984.

Life and career

Born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Shorto was educated at the

Royal Masonic School for Boys The Royal Masonic School for Boys was an English independent school for boys at Bushey in Hertfordshire. History The origins of the school lie in the charities established in the late 18th century to clothe and educate the sons of Freemasons nea ...

in his youth before winning a full scholarship to attend

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

at the age of 17. At St. John's he excelled in studies in both modern and medieval languages and was a rower for the university in

The Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. There are separate men's ...

. The onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

interrupted his education, and he served first as a

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

in the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

as a specialist in

artillery battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to fac ...

on the coast of

North Norfolk North Norfolk is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer. The population at the 2011 Census was 101,149. History The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It was a ...

. He became a commissioned officer with the rank of Major, and was stationed overseas in Burma working for

British Intelligence The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and do ...

. His time spent in Burma during WWII is what led to his interest in the Mon and Mon-Khmer languages. After the war ended, Shorto returned to St John's College, Cambridge to complete his degree; graduating in the Spring of 1948. The following Fall 1948 he joined the faculty of the

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. There he taught courses in Austro-Asiatic and Austronesian families of languages in addition to being a lecturer in Mon in the Department of Languages and Culture of South East Asia and the Islands. In 1964 he was appointed as Reader and in 1971 he was made a Professor of Mon-Khmer studies. He retired from his post as professor in 1984.

Contributions

Shorto is the author of two standard reference works, ''A Dictionary of Modern Spoken Mon'' (1962) and the highly respected author of the standard reference to epigraphic Mon - ''A Dictionary of the Mon Inscriptions'' (1971) - as well as the classic dictionary. His magnum opus was the ''Mon-Khmer comparative dictionary'', which was meant to be published in the early 1980s. It was rediscovered by his daughter Anna, and was published only in 2006. It presents 2,246 etymologies with almost 30,000 lexical citations. It is the most extensive analysis of Mon-Khmer to appear since Wilhelm Schmidt laid the foundations of comparative Mon-Khmer with the ''Grundzüge einer Lautlehre der Mon-Khmer-Sprachen'' (1905) and ''Die Mon-Khmer-Völker'' (1906). (For more information, see

Proto-Austroasiatic language Proto-Austroasiatic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austroasiatic languages. Proto-Mon–Khmer (i.e., all Austroasiatic branches except for Munda) has been reconstructed in Harry L. Shorto's ''Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary'', while a ...

Works

*1960. Word and syllable patterns in Palaung. ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'' 23:544-57. *1961. “A Mon Genealogy of Kings: Observations on the Nidana Arambhakatha,” In In D. G. E. Hall (ed.). Historians of South-East Asia, London: Oxford University Press, pp. 62–72. *1962. ''A Dictionary of Modern Spoken Mon.'' *Shorto, H. L. (1963). The 32 myos in the medieval Mon kingdom. ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', 26(3), 572-591. *1963. The Structural pattern of northern Mon-Khmer languages. In H. L. Shorto (ed.), ''Linguistic Comparison in South-East Asia and the Pacific'', pp. 45–61. *1963. Shorto, Harry L.; Jacob, Judith M. & Simmonds, E. H. S.. ''Bibliographies of Mon-Khmer and Tai linguistics.'' London. *1971. ''A Dictionary of the Mon Inscriptions from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries.'' London: Oxford University Press. *1972. “The word for ‘two’ in Austroasiatic.” Jacqueline M. C. Thomas & Lucien Bernot (eds.). ''Langues et techniques, nature et société'', Vol. 1, “Approche linguistique”. Paris: Klincksieck. 233-35 *Shorto, H. L. (1973). Three Mon-Khmer word families. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 36(02), 374-381. *Shorto, H. L. (1976). The vocalism of proto-Mon-Khmer. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication, 1041-1067. *Shorto, H. L. (1978). The Planets, the Days of the Week, and the Points of the Compass: Orientation Symbolism in Burma. Natural Symbols in South East Asia, 152-164. *2006. ''A Mon-Khmer comparative dictionary.'' Edited by Paul J. Sidwell, Doug Cooper, and Christian Bauer. (Pacific Linguistics) Canberra: Australian National University. * Shorto, H. L. No Date. ''Nidana Ramadhipati-katha.'' Unpublished typescript translation of pp. 34–44, 61-264 of Phra Candakanto (editor). On binding Rajawamsa Dhammaceti Mahapitakadhara. Pak Lat, Siam (1912).

References

* Shorto, Harry L.; Sidwell, Paul; Doug Cooper and Christian Bauer, eds. 2006. ''A Mon-Khmer Comparative Dictionary''. Canberra: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics. .

External links

Harry Shorto papers
(

SEAlang library The SEAlang Library, established in 2005 as an online library source for Southeast Asian linguistic reference materials, was initially funded from the Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) program of the U ...

)
Harry Shorto Papers Archive
curated by

Paul Sidwell Paul James Sidwell is an Australian linguist based in Canberra, Australia who has held research and lecturing positions at the Australian National University. Sidwell, who is also an expert and consultant in forensic linguistics, is most notable ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shorto, Harry Leonard 1919 births 1995 deaths British philologists Linguists from the United Kingdom Historical linguists Linguists of Austroasiatic languages British orientalists Academics of SOAS University of London Academics of the University of London Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge 20th-century linguists 20th-century philologists

Life and career

Contributions

Works

See also

References

External links