Saveros Pou ( km, ពៅ សាវរស,
UNGEGN
The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) is one of the nine expert groups of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and deals with the national and international standardization of geographical names. Ev ...
: ,
ALA-LC
ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script.
Applications
The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...
: ; 24 August 1929 – 25 June 2020), also known around 1970 under the name Saveros Lewitz, was a French linguist of Cambodian origin. A retired research director of the
CNRS
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
in Paris, a specialist of the Khmer language and civilization, she carried out extensive work of Khmer
epigraphy
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
, started as a young researcher with her teacher
George Cœdès
George Cœdès (; 10 August 1886 – 2 October 1969) was a 20th-century French scholar of southeast Asian archaeology and history.
Biography
Cœdès was born in Paris to a family of supposed Hungarian-Jewish émigrés. In fact, the family was ...
.
Her work in the field of
etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
, specifically applied to
Old Khmer
Old Khmer is the oldest attested stage of the Khmer language, an Austroasiatic language historically and presently spoken across Cambodia, Southern Vietnam, and parts of Thailand and Laos. It is recorded in inscriptions dating from the early 7th c ...
(from the 6th to the 14th) was seminal, but her varied skills enabled her to tackle areas such as the very rich processes of derivation in Khmer, religion, codes of conduct ('' CPAP '' '), zoology and botany, cooking, etc. This encyclopedic spirit is particularly evident in her ''Dictionnaire vieux khmer-français-anglais''.
Biography
Born 24 August 1929 in
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...
, Saveros Pou came to France for her graduate studies, carried out under the guidance of teachers such as François Martini, Au Chhieng,
Jean Filliozat
Jean Filliozat (4 November 1906 in Paris – 27 October 1982 in Paris) was a French writer. He studied medicine and was a physician between 1930 and 1947. He learned Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Tamil. He wrote some important works on the history ...
,
Louis Renou Louis Renou (; 26 October 1896 – 18 August 1966) was the pre-eminent French Indologist of the twentieth century.
Education and Career
After passing the ''agrégation'' examination in 1920, Louis Renou taught for a year at the ''lycée'' in Rouen. ...
and
George Cœdès
George Cœdès (; 10 August 1886 – 2 October 1969) was a 20th-century French scholar of southeast Asian archaeology and history.
Biography
Cœdès was born in Paris to a family of supposed Hungarian-Jewish émigrés. In fact, the family was ...
, which enabled her to acquire very varied theoretical language skills and practices.
[Notice biographique du ''Choix d'articles de khmérologie'' de 2003, pp. vii-xi]
In 1965 she presented a postgraduate doctorate on Khmer
toponymy
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
, of which large extracts were included in 1967 in the ''
Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient
The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in wh ...
''. In 1978, she supported her State doctorate devoted to ''Rāmakerti'', the Khmer version of the ''
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
''.
[
She is the author of more than 150 books and articles, published in several orientalist journals such as the '']Journal Asiatique
The ''Journal asiatique'' (full earlier title ''Journal Asiatique ou Recueil de Mémoires, d'Extraits et de Notices relatifs à l'Histoire, à la Philosophie, aux Langues et à la Littérature des Peuples Orientaux'') is a biannual peer-reviewed a ...
'' and the ''Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient
The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in wh ...
''.
Using the pioneering work in Khmer phonetics
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. ...
of Khuon Sokhamphu
Khuon Sokhampu was a Cambodian linguist and phonetics scholar, who was among the many intellectuals who were exterminated by the Khmer Rouge regime. Along with Iv Koeus and Keng Vannsak, Khuon Sokhamphu was one of the three pioneers of Khmer lin ...
, Saveros Pou developed the transliteration system for the Khmer language used by George Coedès, which permits to see very easily borrowings from Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
, and is complemented by some specific letters in Khmer (vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s ែ ''ae'', ើ ''oe'', ៀ ''īe'', ឿ ''īoe'', among others). Thus, the modern word ទន្តពេទ្យ for "dentist", pronounced ''toan'pèt, but transliterated ''dantabedy'', is a complex formation from the Sanskrit words ''danta'' : "tooth" and ''vaidya'' : "physician" (verbal root VID "to know"; in Sanskrit, ''b'' and ''v'' are often used interchangeably and the vowel ''e'' like ''ai'' derives from ''i''. This transliteration system is used inter alia at the INALCO
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...
.
She died in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges
Villeneuve-Saint-Georges () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. People from Villeneuve-Saint-Georges are called ''Villeneuvois'' in French.
History Prehistory and Antiquity
Vill ...
southeast of Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
on 25 June 2020, 81 days short of her 91st birthday.
Bibliography
Her detailed bibliography is to be found on the site of the AEFEK.
Her major publications include:
(under the name Saveros Lewitz)
* ''La toponymie khmère'', BEFEO (Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient
The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in wh ...
) 53, 2, 1967, pp. 377-450.
* (with Gabrielle Martel and Jules-Eugène Vidal) ''Notes ethnobotaniques sur quelques plantes en usage au Cambodge'', BEFEO 55, 1969, .
* (with Bruno Rollet) ''Lexique des noms d’arbres et d’arbustes au Cambodge'', BEFEO 60, 1973, pp. 113-162.
(under the name Saveros Pou)
* ''Ramakerti (XVIè-XVIIè siècles), Traduit et commenté par Saveros Pou'', Paris, École française d'Extrême-Orient
The French School of the Far East (french: École française d'Extrême-Orient, ), abbreviated EFEO, is an associated college of PSL University dedicated to the study of Asian societies. It was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi in wh ...
, vol. CX, 1977, 299 p.
* ''Etudes sur le Ramakerti (XVIè-XVIIè siècles)'', Paris, EFEO, vol. CXI, 1977, 201 p.
* ''Ramakerti (XVIè-XVIIè siècles), Texte khmer publié par Saveros Pou'', Paris, EFEO, vol. CXVII, 1979, IX + 330 p.
* ''Ramakerti II (Deuxième version du Ramayaṇa khmer), Texte khmer, traduction et annotations par Saveros Pou'', Paris, EFEO, vol. CXXXII, 1982, 305 p. + Planches.
* ''Nouvelles inscriptions du Cambodge I'', École française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris, 1989, 155 p. + 32 p. de planches.
* ''Les noms de monuments khmers'', BEFEO 78, 1991, .
* ''Nouvelles inscriptions du Cambodge II & III'', École française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris, 2001, 334 p. dont 44 de planches.
* ''Choix d'articles de khmérologie'', Reyum Publishing, Phnom Penh, 2003, XV+448 p.
* ''Dictionnaire vieux khmer-français-anglais. An Old Khmer-French-English Dictionary'', L'Harmattan
Éditions L'Harmattan, usually known simply as L'Harmattan (), is one of the largest French book publishers. It specialises in non-fiction books with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. It is named after the Harmattan, a trade wind in W ...
, 2004, 2nd edition augmentée, 732 p.
* (with Grégory Mikaelian) ''Rāmakerti I – « La gloire de Rāma ». Drame épique médiéval du Cambodge'', Paris, L'Harmattan, 2007, 440 p.
* (with Grégory Mikaelian) ''Nouvelles inscriptions du Cambodge'', Vol. IV, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2011, 165 p. + VII p. d’illustrations.
References
External links
Philip N. Jenner, Saveros Pou. : "A Lexicon of Khmer Morphology", MonKhmer-studies IX-X
on Persée
Saveros POU – Nouvelles inscriptions du Cambodge
on École Khmère de Paris
on AEFEK
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pou, Saveros
French epigraphers
Linguists from France
People from Phnom Penh
1929 births
2020 deaths
Women linguists