Joseph Mansion (1877–1937) was a Belgian

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and a professor at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...

Life

Mansion was born in Ghent on 9 January 1877 and studied at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in the city and at the

University of Ghent Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

.A. Van Loey, "Mansion (Joseph)", ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' (French; "National Biography of Belgium") is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ' ...

''
vol. 30
(Brussels, 1958), 536-540. He wrote a doctorate in the field of classical philology, on

guttural Guttural speech sounds are those with a primary place of articulation near the back of the oral cavity, especially where it's difficult to distinguish a sound's place of articulation and its phonation. In popular usage it is an imprecise term fo ...

s in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

. In 1900 he won a travel scholarship which enabled him to pursue studies at the universities of Leipzig, Bonn, Berlin and Cambridge. On 20 October 1904 he was appointed at the University of Liège to replace

Oswald Orth Oswald Orth (1832 – 13 December 1920) was the first professor of English Literature at the University of Liège. Life Orth was born in 1832 in Weilbach, now a subdivision of Flörsheim am Main, in the Duchy of Nassau. In 1869 he obtained a do ...

in teaching

comparative grammar Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness ...

of the

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...

, and historical grammar of English and German. From 1905 he also taught

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

. He was appointed

extraordinary professor Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia. Overview Appointment grades * (Pay grade: ''W3'' or ''W2'') * (''W3'') * (''W2'') * (''W2'', ...

on 18 October 1910, and

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

on 22 May 1919. From 1908 he also taught comparative grammar of Greek and Latin, and Sanskrit language and literature. In 1924 Mansion was appointed director of the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature, of which he had become a corresponding member in 1909 and a full member in 1911. He was also a member of the

Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde The Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (English "Society of Dutch Literature", often abbreviated ''MNL'') is a prestigious and exclusive literary society. The MNL was established in Leiden in 1766 and is still located there. At the moment, ...

, the

Société de Linguistique de Paris The Société de Linguistique de Paris (established 1864) is the editing body of the ''BSL'' (''Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique'') journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a met ...

, and the Commission Royale de Toponymie et Dialectologie. Mansion died in Liège on 8 November 1937.

Publications

* ''Les Gutturales grecques'' (Ghent and Paris, 1904) * ''Oud-gentsche naamkunde'' (The Hague, 1924)Review by A. Carnoy
in '' Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire'', 4 (1925), pp. 485-489. * ''Esquisse d'une histoire de la langue sanscrite'' (Paris, 1931) * ''De voornaamste bestanddeelen der Vlaamsche plaatsnamen'' (Brussels, 1935) * "Déclinaison du Hittite", ''Mélanges H. Pedersen'' (1937), pp. 480-487

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mansion, Joseph 1877 births 1937 deaths Writers from Ghent Belgian philologists Ghent University alumni Academic staff of the University of Liège