René Gsell (1921–2000) was a French

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

phonetician Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

Career

Starting in 1955, when he was appointed at the

University of Grenoble The Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA, French: meaning "''Grenoble Alps University''") is a public research university in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 resea ...

, Gsell undertook to develop its Institute of Phonetics into an internationally recognized laboratory. Gsell was appointed General Secretary of the Permanent Council for the Organization of International Congresses of Phonetic Sciences in 1961. He founded the journal ''Revue Langage et Comportement'', first published in 1965. In the iconoclastic fever of the May 1968 events in France, Gsell was criticized as a representative of old-style, retrograde scholarship and had to discontinue his teaching in Grenoble. He was offered positions as professor in Australia (Monash University, Clayton), Canada (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver), the Netherlands (Nijmegen University), and in Paris, at the

Sorbonne Nouvelle The New Sorbonne University (french: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, also known as Paris III) is a public university in Paris, France. It is one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was completely overhauled and rest ...

, a position which he accepted and held until his retirement. He was succeeded by

Jacqueline Vaissière Jacqueline Vaissière (born 24 August 1946 in Mont-Saint-Martin, France) is a French phonetician. Career Vaissière studied computing and automatic language translation under the supervision of Bernard Vauquois, at Centre d’Études et de Tr ...

Fields of research

Gsell's interests in linguists were broad: beyond experimental phonetics, he kept up to date on publications about general linguistics, dialectology, Romance linguistics, models of syntax, and applied mathematics. In addition to classical languages such as Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and Old Persian, he knew Old Norse and Gothic. He also knew Thai (Siamese) and acquired some first-hand knowledge of a considerable range of languages.

Bibliography

* Gsell, René. 1979a. Etudes et recherches tonales (Contribution à la typologie tonale). Paris: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle,. * Gsell, René. 1979b. La prosodie du thai standard: tons et accent. Paris: Université Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle, Institut de Phonétique. * Gsell, René. 1979c. Remarques sur la structure de l’espace tonal en vietnamien du sud (parler de Saïgon). Paris: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Institut d’études linguistiques et phonétiques. * Gsell, René. 1979d. Sur la réalisation chuchotée des tons du thai standard. Paris: Institut d’Etudes Linguistiques et Phonétiques, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle. * Gsell, René. 1985. Hauteurs spécifiques, types consonantiques et tons statiques en thai. In Ratanakul Suriya, David Thomas & Premsrirat Suwilai (eds.), Southeast Asian Linguistic Studies presented to André-G. Haudricourt, 389–427. Bangkok: Mahidol University. * † Gsell, René. 2001. The consonantal system of common Romani: a diasystemic approach. In Études de linguistique générale et contrastive: Hommage à Jean Perrot, ed. by Anne-Marie Löffler-Laurian, 169-186. Paris: CRELS (Centre de Recherche sur les Langues et les Sociétés).

References

* Mario Rossi and

, « In Memoriam René Gsell, docteur ès lettres 1921–2000 », in ''Phonetica'' 2002, vol. 59, pp. 263–265.

External links

In Memoriam René Gsell, docteur ès lettres 1921–2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gsell, Rene 1921 births 2000 deaths Linguists from France Academic staff of the University of Paris 20th-century linguists