__NOTOC__ Wolf Leslau ( yi, וולף לסלאו; born November 14, 1906 in

Krzepice Krzepice (german: Krippitz) is a Polish town near Częstochowa, in Kłobuck County, Silesian Voivodeship, in northwestern corner of Lesser Poland. It is located near the historic border of Lesser Poland and Silesia, which goes along the Liswar ...

Vistula Land Vistula Land, Vistula Country (russian: Привислинский край, ''Privislinsky krai''; pl, Kraj Nadwiślański) was the name applied to the lands of Congress Poland from 1867, following the defeats of the November Uprising (1830– ...

, Poland; died November 18, 2006 in Fullerton, California) was a scholar of

Semitic language The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant and ...

s and one of the foremost authorities on Semitic languages of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...

Youth and education

Leslau was born in

, a small town near

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (admi ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

. When he was a child his family was very poor, and after contracting

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

he usually had to keep a thermometer with him to monitor his body temperature, although the reasons for this are unknown. He was orphaned by the age of 10, and was raised by his brother, and received a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are stu ...

education. To avoid military service in the Polish army, he gave up his Polish citizenship (becoming a stateless person) and emigrated to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, where he would engage in Semitic studies at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich h ...

until 1931. He then went to the Sorbonne to study under Marcel Cohen. His studies included most of the

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant a ...

, including

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform, early writing system * Akkadian myt ...

Soqotri Soqotri (also spelt Socotri, Sokotri, or Suqutri; autonym: ماتڸ دسقطري, ''mɛ́taḷ di-saḳɔ́ṭri''; , ''al-luḡah al-suquṭriyyah'') is a South Semitic language spoken by the Soqotri people on the island of Socotra and the two ...

and Ethiopic.

War years

Leslau was arrested by the French police and sent to an internment camp in the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

where he spent the harsh winter of 1939-1940 with his wife and child. He was later moved to

Camp des Milles The Camp des Milles was a French internment camp, opened in September 1939, in a former tile factory near the village of Les Milles, part of the commune of Aix-en-Provence ( Bouches-du-Rhône).Guénaël LemoueeCamp des Milles : la mémoire de ...

, a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...

near

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label=Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

. However, with the assistance of an international aid group, he escaped with his family before the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

took over the camp in 1942. Escaping to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, he later became a

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

U.S. citizen. He settled in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, and received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

to continue his studies of the Semitic languages in

. He traveled throughout the country, recording endangered Ethiopian languages. For one language,

Gafat The Gafat language is an extinct South Ethiopic language once spoken by the Gafat people along the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, and later, speakers pushed south of Gojjam in what is now East Welega Zone. Gafat was related to the Harari language and E ...

, Leslau was able to locate only four speakers. It became extinct shortly thereafter.

Career in the United States and fieldwork

After teaching at the Asia Institute, the New School for Social Research, and for 4 years at

Brandeis University Brandeis University is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational institution sponsored by the Jews, Jewish community, Brandeis was established on t ...

, he joined the faculty of

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

in 1955. He was instrumental in establishing the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Center for Near East Studies.

Ethiopia

Leslau specialized in previously unrecorded and unstudied

of Ethiopia. His first trip to Ethiopia in 1946 was funded by a

Guggenheim fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

South Arabia and Yemen

In 1950, Leslau traveled to South Arabia and Yemen. There he made field recordings at gatherings of South Arabian Bedouins and

Yemenite Jews Yemenite Jews or Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ''Yehudei Teman''; ar, اليهود اليمنيون) are those Jews who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. Between June 1949 and September 1950, the ...

. In 1951, the recordings were issued by

Folkways Records Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways. History The Folkways Records & Servic ...

as ''Music of South Arabia'' in their "ethnic" series, FE-4221. The recordings, as well as Leslau's liner notes, are available for download from

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

Recognitions and retirement

In 1965 Leslau received the

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

Prize for Ethiopian Studies in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, ...

from Ethiopian Emperor

. He held the position of Professor Emeritus at UCLA until his death at the age of 100. He remained active in research and writing until his death. He learned to use a Macintosh computer at the age of 80. Leslau died at a nursing home in Fullerton, California, in 2006.

Partial bibliography

* 1938: ''Lexique Soqotri (sudarabique moderne) avec comparaisons et explications étymologiques''. Paris: Klincksieck. * 1941: ''Documents tigrigna: grammaire et textes''. Paris: Libraire C. Klincksieck. * 1945: ''Short Grammar of Tigré''. Publications of the American Oriental Society, Offprint Series, No. 18. New Haven. * 1945:
Gafat Documents: Records of a South-Ethiopic language
'. American Oriental series, no. 28. New Haven. * 1950: ''Ethiopic Documents: Gurage''. New York: Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, no. 14. * 1951: ''Falasha Anthology''. Yale Judaica Series, vol. 6. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. () * 1956: ''Étude descriptive et comparative du Gafat (éthiopien méridional)''. Paris: Klincksieck, xx + 277 p. * 1958: ''Ethiopic and South Arabic contributions to the Hebrew lexicon''. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 76 p. * 1958: ''The verb in Harari''. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, x + 86 p. * 1965: ''An Amharic Conversation Book''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. () * 1965: ''Ethiopians speak. Studies in cultural background''. Part 1: Harari. Near Eastern Studies, no. 7. Berkeley: University of California Press. * 1965: ''An annotated bibliography of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia. The Hague: Mouton. * 1966: ''Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background''. Part 2: Chaha. University of California Publication. Near Eastern Studies, no. 9, 219 p. * 1967: ''Amharic Textbook''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. () * 1968: ''Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background''. Part 3: Soddo. University of California Publications. Near Eastern Studies, vol. 11. * 1969: ''Hebrew Cognates in Amharic''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. () * 1973: ''English-Amharic Context Dictionary''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xviii + 1503 p. () * 1976: ''Concise Amharic Dictionary''. (Reissue edition: 1996) Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. () * 1979: ''Etymological Dictionary of Gurage (Ethiopic)''. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. () * 1981: ''Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background''. Part 4: Muher. Äthiopistische Forschungen, no. 11. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. () * 1982: ''Gurage Folklore: Proverbs, beliefs, and riddles''. Studien zur Kulturkunde, no. 63. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. () * 1983: ''Ethiopians Speak: Studies in Cultural Background''. Part 5: Chaha and Ennemor. Äthiopistische Forschungen, no. 16. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. * 1987: ''Comparative dictionary of Ge‛ez (Classical Ethiopic) : Gǝ‛ǝz-English/English-Gǝ‛ǝz with an index of the Semitic roots''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xlix + 813 p. * 1988: ''Fifty Years of Research: Selection of articles on Semitic, Ethiopian Semitic and Cushitic''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xlv + 503 p. () * 1989: ''Concise dictionary of Gǝ‛ǝz (Classical Ethiopic)''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 247 p. * 1990: ''Arabic Loanwords in Ethiopian Semitic''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. () * 1992: ''Gurage Studies : Collected Articles''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xxix + 744 p. () * 1995: ''Reference Grammar of Amharic''. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. () * 1997: ''Ethiopic Documents: Argobba. Grammar and dictionary''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. () * 1999: ''Zway Ethiopic Documents''. Äthiopistische Forschungen, no. 51. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. () * 2000: ''Introductory Grammar of Amharic''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, xix + 232 p. () * 2001: (with Thomas L. Kane) ''Amharic Cultural Reader''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. () * 2004: ''The Verb in Mäsqan as Compared with other Gurage Dialects''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ()

Festschriften

* Segert, Stanislav &

András J. E. Bodrogligeti András () is a Hungarian masculine given name, the Hungarian form of ''Andrew''. Notable people with the name include: * András Ádám-Stolpa (born 1921), Hungarian tennis player * András Adorján (born 1950), Hungarian writer * András Ágost ...

(eds.), ''Ethiopian Studies: Dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the Occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, November 14, 1981 by friends and colleagues''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1983, xii + 582 p. (). * Kaye, Alan S. (ed.), ''Semitic studies in honor of Wolf Leslau on the occasion of his 85th birthday, November 14, 1991''. 2 Vols. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz 1991, lxviii. + 1719 p. (). * Hudson, Grover (ed.), ''Essays on Gurage Language and Culture: Dedicated to Wolf Leslau on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday, November 14, 1996''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1996, 239 p. ().

References

External links

* * *

Relevant literature

* Devens, Monica S., "On the Occasion of Wolf Leslau's 100th Birthday", in: ''Aethiopica'' 9 (2006), pp. 220–221. * Müller, Walter W., "Zum Gedenken an Wolf Leslau", in: ''Aethiopica'' 10 (2007), pp. 210–218. * Fikre Tolossa. Wolf Leslau (1906-2006). 2007. International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 3.1: 121-123. * Kaye, Alan S. "Wolf Leslau." ''Language'' 83, no. 4 (2007): 870-875. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leslau, Wolf 1906 births 2006 deaths People from Kłobuck County Jewish social scientists Linguists from Poland Linguists from Austria Linguists from the United States Men centenarians Polish centenarians Semiticists Ethiopianists Polish Africanists American Africanists University of Paris alumni Polish Orthodox Jews Polish emigrants to the United States American people of Austrian-Jewish descent American people of Polish-Jewish descent 20th-century linguists