William Edward Collinson (4 January 1889 – 4 May 1969) was a British

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, from 1914 to 1954, Chair of German at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

. Like

Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sa ...

and

Otto Jespersen Jens Otto Harry Jespersen (; 16 July 1860 – 30 April 1943) was a Danish linguist who specialized in the grammar of the English language. Steven Mithen described him as "one of the greatest language scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth ce ...

, he collaborated with

Alice Vanderbilt Morris Alice Vanderbilt Shepard Morris (December 7, 1874 – August 15, 1950) was a member of the Vanderbilt family. She co-founded the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). Early life Alice was born on December 7, 1874 in New York. Sh ...

to develop the research program of the

International Auxiliary Language Association The International Auxiliary Language Association, Inc. (IALA) was an American organisation founded in 1924 to "promote widespread study, discussion and publicity of all questions involved in the establishment of an auxiliary language, together wi ...

(IALA). From 1936 to 1939, he was Research Director of IALA. Under Collinson's guidance, methods of compiling international word material were tested at Liverpool. In 1939 IALA moved from Liverpool to New York and

E. Clark Stillman Ezra Clark Stillman (1907-1995) laid out the criteria for extracting and standardizing the vocabulary of Interlingua. In 1937, Stillman replaced William Edward Collinson as Director of Research at the International Auxiliary Language Association ...

succeeded Collinson as Research Director.

Alexander Gode Alexander Gottfried Friedrich Gode-von Aesch (October 30, 1906 – August 10, 1970) was a German-born American linguist, translator and the driving force behind the creation of the auxiliary language Interlingua. Biography Born to a German fat ...

, editor of the first English-Interlingua dictionary published in 1951, remained in contact with Collinson which had collected much of linguistic material in the University of Liverpool. Collinson wrote a popularization book in Esperanto about linguistics : ''La Homa Lingvo'' ("The Human Language") in 1927. He was also a collaborator of ''

Centro por Esploro kaj Dokumentado Centro may refer to: Places Brazil *Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil *Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Duq ...

'' and '' Internacia Scienca Universitato'' where he gave 7 lectures. He was chairman of '' Internacia Scienca Asocio Esperantista'' 1959-1965 and a longtime member of the ''

Akademio de Esperanto The Akademio de Esperanto (AdE; en, Academy of Esperanto, link=yes) is an independent body of Esperanto speakers who steward the evolution of said language by keeping it consistent with the ''Fundamento de Esperanto'' in accordance with the Decl ...

''.Esperanto en Perspektivo, Faktoj kaj analizoj pri la internacia lingvo, Ivo Lapenna, 1974, UEA, Centro de Esploro kaj Dokumentado pri la Monda Lingvo-Problemo, pp. 270, 513, 671, 683. He was the joint author of ''The German Language'' (with R. Priebsch) first published in 1934; fifth edition Faber & Faber, 1962.

Literature

Falk, Julia S. "Words without grammar: Linguists and the international language movement in the United States," ''Language and Communication'', 15(3): pp. 241–259. Pergamon, 1995.

References

External links

University of Liverpool: Chairs
Linguists from the United Kingdom Interlingua British Esperantists 1889 births 1969 deaths People educated at Dulwich College 20th-century linguists {{UK-linguist-stub