Robert Burton "RB" Jones (January 31, 1920 – November 23, 2007) was a

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 ...

whose research focused on the South East Asian languages, in particular

Karen Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand ** Karen languages or Karenic l ...

Burmese Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (hor ...

and

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

. He was a professor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. Jones studied music as an undergraduate at

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

, particularly focusing on the organ. In 1941, he joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

for

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 ...

and studied Japanese in the army. After the war he began he resumed his studies, this time at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, graduating 1947. He finished a Ph.D. in Linguistics at Berkeley in 1958 under

Mary Haas Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American Indian languages, Thai, and historical linguistics. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was elected a ...

. He travelled on a Ford Foundation grant 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 ...

in 1957–58. Jones taught at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, the

Foreign Service Institute The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the United States federal government's primary training institution for employees of the U.S. foreign affairs community, preparing American diplomats as well as other professionals to advance U.S. foreig ...

of the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

, and in 1955, started at

. Jones retired from Cornell in 1986.

Publications

*Jones, Robert B. (1953). ''The Burmese writing system''. Washington, DC : American Council of Learned Soc.. *Jones, Robert B. (1961). ''Karen Linguistic Studies: Description, comparison, and texts''. Berkeley: University of California Press. *Jones, Robert B. (1970). "Classifier Constructions in Southeast Asia.". ''Journal of the American Oriental Society.'' 90.1: 1-12 *Jones, Robert B. (1972). “Sketch of Burmese dialects.” M. Estellie Smith (ed.), ''Studies in linguistics in honor or George L. Trager.'' The Hague: Mouton. 413-422. *Jones, Robert B. (1974). Rev. of

John Okell John William Alan Okell OBE (; 1934 – 3 August 2020) was a British linguist notable for his expertise in the field of Burma studies. Life Okell was born in Brighton and was educated at The Queen's College, University of Oxford, where he ...

, A reference grammar of colloquial Burmese. ''Language'' 50. 1: 205-7. *Jones, Robert B. (1975). Rev. of Roop, An introduction to the Burmese writing system. ''Journal of Asian Studies'' 32. 1: 205-6. *Jones, Robert B. (1975). The question of Karen linguistic affiliation. 8th International Sino-Tibetan Language and Linguistics. *Jones, Robert B. (1976). "Sketch of Burmese dialects." ''Studies in Honor of George L. Trager.'' M. Estellie Smith, ed. The Hague: Mouton. 413-422 *Jones, Robert B. (1976). "Prolegomena to a phonology of Old Burmese". ''Southeast Asian History and Historiography: essays presented to D. G. E. Hall'' C. D. Cowan and O. W. Wolters, eds. Ithaca: Cornell Univ Press. 43-50 *Jones, Robert B. (1986). "Pitch Register Languages." ''Contributions to Sino-Tibetan studies.'' John McCoy, Timothy Light, eds. Leiden: E. J. Brill. *Jones, Robert B. (1988). "Proto-Burmese as a test of reconstruction." ''On language: rhetorica, phonologica, syntactica: a Festschrift for Robert P. Stockwell from his friends and colleagues.'' Caroline Duncan-Rose and Theo Vennemann, eds. London: Routledge. 203-211

External links

Finding list for the Jones papers at Cornell Library

References

Burmese studies scholars 1920 births 2007 deaths Southern Methodist University alumni United States Army personnel of World War II University of California, Berkeley alumni Cornell University faculty American expatriates in Myanmar Georgetown University staff Linguists from the United States {{US-linguist-stub