Karl-Gottfried Prasse (14 August 1929 in Hamburg – 12 April 2018 in Værløse) was a Danish linguist with a focus in the
Berber language
The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight,, ber, label=Tuareg Tifinagh, ⵜⵎⵣⵗⵜ, ) are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related languages spoken by Berber commun ...
. He was mainly concerned with the Tuareg-Berber language spoken in
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages[Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...](_blank)
and southern
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
. For this language, he has authored dictionaries and complete grammar descriptions.
Prasse took lectures in Egyptology in 1956 and was researching
Hamito-Semitic languages and specialized early in Berber and Arabic dialects (
Cairo dialect) with special focus on
Tuareg languages
The Tuareg () languages constitute a group of closely related Berber languages and dialects. They are spoken by the Tuareg Berbers in large parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, with a few speakers, the ''Kinnin'', in Chad.
Des ...
. He served as associate professor of Berber and Arab dialects at the University of Copenhagen from 1969 to 1996.
The school ''Ecole touarègue de KG Prasse'' in Amataltal in Niger is named after him.
In 2008 he was awarded the
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
{{Infobox organization
, name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
, full_name =
, native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab
, native_name_lang =
, logo = Royal ...
' Gold Medal for his research on the Tuareg language.
Major works
*1972–1973–1974–2009: Manuel de grammaire touarègue (Hoggar dialect) 1–4.
*1989–1990: Poésies touarègues de l'Ayr, 1) Tuareg text 2) French translation
*2003: Dictionnaire Touareg-français 1–2 (Älqamus tëmazhëq-tëfränsist)
References
1929 births
2018 deaths
Berberologists
Linguists from Denmark
{{Denmark-linguist-stub