Donald Laycock (1936–1988) was an Australian linguist and anthropologist. He is best remembered for his work on the languages of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

Biography

He was a graduate of University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia and later worked as a researcher at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

. He undertook his Ph.D. at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

in linguistics and became one among the leading authorities on the languages of Papua New Guinea.Dutton, T., Ross, M. and Tryon, D. (eds.). 1992. ''The Language Game: Papers in memory of Donald C. Laycock''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. He performed several pioneering surveys of the languages of the

Sepik The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...

region of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. The first of these, his Ph.D. research under the supervision of

Stephen Wurm Stephen Adolphe Wurm ( hu, Wurm István Adolf, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist. Early life Wurm was born in Budapest, the second child to the German-speaking Adolphe Wurm and the Hungarian-sp ...

, was published as ''The Ndu languages'' (1965), and established the existence of this closely related group of languages. In subsequent surveys, Laycock found the

Ndu languages The Ndu languages are the best known family of the Sepik languages of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. ''Ndu'' is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group. The languages were first identified as a related famil ...

were part of a larger language family extending through the middle and upper Sepik valley (the "Sepik subphylum"), and in 1973 he proposed that these languages formed part of a Sepik–Ramu phylum. This remained the general consensus in the linguistic world for over 30 years. While more recent work by William A. Foley and Malcolm Ross has cast doubt on a link between the

Ramu – Lower Sepik languages The Ramu River is a major river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels about northwest to the Bismarck Sea. Along the Ramu's course, it receives numerous tributaries ...

and the

Sepik languages The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than presented here. They tend to have ...

, the "Sepik subphylum" seems established as a genuine group. Laycock also first identified the Torricelli (1968) and Piawi groups of languages. He published numerous papers in linguistics and anthropology. He was described by his fellow authors of ''Skeptical'' ( David Vernon, Dr.

Colin Groves Colin Peter Groves (24 June 1942 – 30 November 2017) was a British-Australian biologist and anthropologist. Groves was Professor of Biological Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Education Born in Englan ...

and Simon Brown) as a 20th-century 'Renaissance Man' as his interests were wide-ranging from Melanesian languages, to channelling,

Tarot cards The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots ...

and bawdy songs. He was a Fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australia ...

(FAHA), Vice President of the

Australian Linguistic Society The Australian Linguistic Society (ALS) is an academic association for linguists. It was established in 1967 with the primary goal of furthering interest in and support for linguistics research and teaching in Australia. The Australian Linguistic So ...

(ALS) and a member of Mensa. A keen member of the

Australian Skeptics Australian Skeptics is a loose confederation of like-minded organisations across Australia that began in 1980. Australian Skeptics investigate paranormal and pseudoscientific claims using scientific methodologies. This page covers all Australia ...

he entertained many people at Skeptic's conventions with his demonstrations of

glossolalia Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...

and going into trances. After his death, Laycock's meticulous work on the

Enochian Enochian ( ) is an occult constructed language — said by its originators to have been received from angels — recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his colleague Edward Kelley in late 16th-century England. Kelley was a scryer who w ...

'language' (which was allegedly channelled to an associate of the Elizabethan mystic

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, teacher, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divinatio ...

) was turned by a colleague into one of the very few classics of skeptical linguistics. He died, after a short illness, in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, on 27 December 1988.

Selected bibliography

* ''The Ndu language family (Sepik District, New Guinea)''. Pacific Linguistics C-1. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1965. * "Languages of the Lumi subdistrict (West Sepik district), New Guinea." ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 7: 36–66. 1968. * ''Sepik languages - checklist and preliminary classification''. Pacific Linguistics B-25. Canberra, 1973. * (with

John Z'graggen John Z'graggen (born Hans Anton Z'graggen on 24 June 1932 in Schattdorf, Canton of Uri, Switzerland; died 20 May 2013 in Menzingen, Switzerland) was a Swiss Roman Catholic priest, missionary, linguist, and anthropologist known for his extensive wo ...

) "The Sepik–Ramu phylum." In: Stephen A. Wurm, ed. ''Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene: New Guinea area languages and language study 1''. Pacific Linguistics C-38. 731–763. Canberra, 1975. * ''The Complete Enochian Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Angelic Language as Revealed to Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley'', London: Askin Publishers. 1978. * ''The Best Bawdry'', Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1982. * ''The World's Best Dirty Songs'', Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, 1987, . * (with Alice Buffet) ''Speak Norfuk Today'', Norfolk Island, 1988. * ''Skeptical'' Eds. Don Laycock, David Vernon,

, Simon Brown, Canberra Skeptics, 1989, . * ''A Dictionary of Buin, a language of Bougainville'', ed. Masayuki Onishi (Pacific Linguistics 537, 2003). . (published posthumously)

References

* ''The Skeptic'', Vol 19, No 1, p7 * ''The Second Coming'', Barry Williams, Australian Skeptics, Sydney, 1990 * ''Aspects of meaning in fieldwork'', in Tom Dutton, Malcolm Ross and

Darrell Tryon Darrell T. Tryon (20 July 1942 – 15 May 2013) was a New Zealand-born linguist, academic, and specialist in Austronesian languages. Specifically, Tryon specialised in the study of the languages of the Pacific Islands, particularly Vanuatu, th ...

(eds)
The language game: Papers in memory of Don C. Laycock
Pacific Linguistics, C 110, 22 pp., Canberra: ANU, 1993 {{DEFAULTSORT:Laycock, Donald Australian anthropologists Australian lexicographers Linguists from Australia Linguists of Papuan languages 1936 births 1988 deaths Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Australian National University alumni Place of birth missing Mensans Paleolinguists Linguists of Sepik languages Linguists of Torricelli languages Linguists of South Bougainville languages Linguists of Norfuk 20th-century anthropologists 20th-century linguists 20th-century lexicographers People from Canberra University of Newcastle (Australia) alumni

Biography

See also

Selected bibliography

References