John William Alan Okell OBE (; 1934 – 3 August 2020) was a British linguist notable for his expertise in the field of

Burma studies Burma studies is a grouping used in research universities around the world as a way of bringing together specialists from different disciplines such as history, cultural anthropology, archeology, religious studies, art history, political science, ...

Life

Okell was born in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

and was educated at The Queen's College,

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, where he read Literae Humaniores ("Greats")."SOAS scholar awarded OBE for services to UK-Burma relations"
(3 July 2014)

In 1959, an inquiry about language courses through the

British Foreign Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign ...

led to his joining 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 ...

as a trainee lecturer in Burmese: "They were looking for someone to be taught Burmese. I applied to the program as I was interested in languages and they chose me and trained me.""Love of the Lingo"
(''

The Irrawaddy ''The Irrawaddy'' () is a news website by the Irrawaddy Publishing Group (IPG), founded in 1990 by Burmese exiles living in Thailand. From its inception, ''The Irrawaddy'' has taken an independent stance on Burmese politics. As a publication pr ...

'', 29 June 2015)
Archived copy
At SOAS, he studied Burmese with

Hla Pe Dr. Hla Pe ( my, လှဘေ, ; 8 January 1913 – 31 July 2007) was a prominent Burmese language linguist and a longtime contributor to the '' Myanmar–English Dictionary''. He was professor of Burmese language and culture at the University of ...

and Anna J. Allott, phonetics with R. K. Sprigg and N. C. Scott, and general linguistics with

R. H. Robins Robert Henry Robins, FBA (1 July 1921 – 21 April 2000), affectionately known to his close ones as Bobby Robins, was a British linguist. Before his retirement, he spent his entire career at the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at the ...

and

Eugénie Henderson Eugénie Jane Andrina Henderson, FBA (2 October 1914 – 27 July 1989) was a British linguist and academic, specialising in phonetics. From 1964 to 1982, she was Professor of Phonetics at the University of London. She served as Chair of the Ling ...

. After eighteen months of study, he travelled to

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, where he spent a year (1960–1961) immersing himself in the country's language and culture.Britain–Burma Society: Members of the CouncilArchived copy
He returned for another year-long visit in 1969. He retired from SOAS in 1999, although he remained a research associate in the Department of South East Asia. Following his retirement, he continued his teaching of Burmese through short courses convened in a variety of places, most notably

Chiang Mai Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second largest city in ...

and

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. In 2014, in the

Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...

, he was made an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

for services to UK/Burma relations. In 2016, SOAS awarded him an honorary doctorate."Queen’s Gold medal winner, education activist, leading curator and three distinguished scholars honoured at SOAS Graduation Ceremonies"
(30 June 2016)

He was the creator of the ''Avalaser'' Burmese computer font and the Chairman of the

Britain-Burma Society The Britain-Burma Society is a society founded in 1957 under the distinguished patronage of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Sir Hubert Rance (formerly Governor of Burma), Miss Dorothy Woodman, the Rt. Hon. Malcolm MacDonald, the Rt. Hon. Arthur Bottoml ...

. He died on 3 August 2020 at the age of eighty-six."From the Archive: Love of the Lingo"
(''

'', 5 August 2020)
Archived copy
"John Okell: Remembering a ‘gentle giant’ of Burmese teaching"
('' Frontier Myanmar'', 7 August 2020)."RIP ''Saya'' John"
(

Marc Miyake is an American linguist who specializes in historical linguistics, particularly the study of Old Japanese and Tangut. Biography Miyake was born in Aiea, Hawaii in 1971, and attended Punahou School in Honolulu, graduating in 1989. He studied ...

, 10 August 2020).

Notable works

Books

* Okell, John (1969). ''A Reference Grammar of Colloquial Burmese''. London: Oxford University Press. * Okell, John (1971). ''A Guide to the Romanization of Burmese''. London: Luzac. * Okell, John (1989). ''First Steps in Burmese''. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. * Okell, John (1994). ''Burmese: An Introduction to the Spoken Language: Book 1''. De Kalb: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University. * Okell, John (1994). ''Burmese: An Introduction to the Spoken Language: Book 2''. De Kalb: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University. * Okell, John (1994). ''Burmese: An Introduction to the Script''. De Kalb: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University. * Okell, John (1994). ''Burmese: An Introduction to the Literary Style''. De Kalb: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University. * Okell, John, and Anna Allott (2001). ''Burmese/Myanmar Dictionary of Grammatical Forms''. Richmond: Curzon Press. * Okell, John (2002)
''Burmese By Ear/Essential Myanmar''
London: Audio-Forum, Sussex Publications.

Papers

* Hla Pe, Anna J. Allott, and John Okell (1963)
Three 'Immortal' Burmese Songs
''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 559–571. * Okell, John (1964)
Learning Music from a Burmese Master
''Man'', Vol. 64, p. 183. * Okell, John (1965)
Nissaya Burmese: A Case of Systematic Adaptation to a Foreign Grammar and Syntax
''Lingua'', Vol. 15, pp. 186–227. * Okell, John (1967)
"Translation" and "Embellishment" in an Early Burmese "Jātaka" Poem
''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'', Nos. 3&4, pp. 133–148. * Okell, John (1971)
The Burmese Double-Reed "Nhai"
''Asian Music'', Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 25–31. * Okell, John (1979)
"Still" and "Anymore" in Burmese: Another Look at /theì/, /oùn/ and /tó/
''Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area'', Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 69–82. * Okell, John (1988)
Notes on Tone Alternation in Maru Verbs
In David Bradley, Eugénie J. A. Henderson, and Martine Mazaudon (eds.), ''Prosodic Analysis and Asian Linguistics: To Honour R. K. Sprigg'', pp. 109–114. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. * Okell, John (1989)
The Yaw Dialect of Burmese
In J. H. C. S. Davidson (ed.), ''South-East Asian Linguistics: Essays in Honour of Eugénie J. A. Henderson'', pp. 199–217. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. * Okell, John (1995)
Three Burmese Dialects
In David Bradley (ed.), ''Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics No. 13: Studies in Burmese Languages'', pp. 1–138. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. * Okell, John (2007)
Obituary: Dr. U Hla Pe (1913–2007)
''Bulletin of Burma Research'', Vol. 5, Nos. 1&2, pp. 1–4.

Notes

References

External links

Digital collection
of Okell's 1969 fieldwork notes on Maru. {{DEFAULTSORT:Okell, John 1934 births 2020 deaths 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists Academics of SOAS University of London Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford British orientalists Burmese studies scholars Linguists from the United Kingdom Linguists of Burmese Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Brighton