Thomas Oden Lambdin (October 31, 1927 – May 8, 2020) was a leading scholar of the Semitic and

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

languages. He received his Ph.D. in 1952 from the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

Department of Near Eastern Studies, where his advisor was

William Foxwell Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891– September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars." ...

; his dissertation was on "Egyptian Loanwords and Transcriptions in the Ancient Semitic Languages." He was appointed as an associate professor of Semitic Languages at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1964. He retired from Harvard in 1983 and served as Professor Emeritus until his death. He was admired not only for his research and his "tireless teaching", but for the quality of his introductory textbooks on Biblical Hebrew, Coptic, Ge'ez and

Gothic language Gothic is an extinct East Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the ''Codex Argenteus'', a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizeable text c ...

. His ''Festschrift'', ''Working with No Data: Semitic and Egyptian Studies Presented to Thomas O. Lambdin'' (ed. David M. Golomb and Susan T. Hollis; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1987) includes a full bibliography of his publications, as well as chapters by

John Huehnergard John Huehnergard (born March 16, 1952) is a Canadian-American specialist in Semitic languages, notable for his work on categorization, etymology, and historical linguistics. Early life and education Huehnergard was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Can ...

and Richard J. Clifford about their experiences as his students

Works

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References

* Linguists from the United States Harvard University faculty 2020 deaths 1927 births {{US-linguist-stub