Sir Gerard Leslie Makins Clauson (28 April 1891 – 1 May 1974) was an English civil servant, businessman, and Orientalist best known for his studies of the

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...

. He was born in Malta. The eldest son of Major Sir John Eugene Clauson, Gerard Clauson attended

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

, where he was Captain of School, and where, at age 15 or 16, he published a critical edition of a short

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

text, "A New Kammavācā" in the ''Journal of the Pali Text Society''. In 1906, when his father was named Chief Secretary for

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, he taught himself Turkish to complement his school Greek. He studied at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517 by Richard Fo ...

, in classics, receiving his degree in Greats, then became

Boden Scholar The Boden Scholarship at the University of Oxford was established in 1833 to support students learning Sanskrit. History and scholars Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Boden, after whom the scholarship is named, served in the Bombay Native Infantry of the ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, 1911; Hall-Houghtman Syriac Prizeman, 1913; and James Mew

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Scholar, 1920. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he fought in the battle of Gallipoli but spent the majority of his effort in

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

, concerned with German and Ottoman army codes. These were the years in which the great

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

n expeditions of Sven Hedin, Sir Aurel Stein and others were unearthing new texts in a variety of languages including Tocharian and

Saka The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...

(both Khotanese, and Tumshuqese). Clauson actively engaged in unraveling their philologies, as well as Chinese

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

texts in the

Tibetan script The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or '' abugida'', forming a part of the Brahmic scripts, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. Its exact origins ...

. Clauson also worked on the Tangut language, and in 1938–1939 wrote a ''Skeleton dictionary of the Hsi-hsia language''. The manuscript copy is held at the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

in London, and was published as a facsimile edition in 2016. In 1919 he began work in the British Civil Service, which was to culminate in serving as the Assistant Under-Secretary of State in the Colonial Office, 1940–1951, in which capacity he chaired the International Wheat Conference, 1947, and International Rubber Conference, 1951. After his mandatory retirement at age 60, he switched to a business career and in time served as chairman of

Pirelli Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is an Italian multinational tyre manufacturer based in the city of Milan, Italy. The company, which has been listed on the Borsa Italiana since 1922, is the 5th-largest tyre manufacturer, and is focused on the consumer pro ...

, 1960–1969.

Selected works

*1962, 2002
''Turkish and Mongolian Studies''
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Rpt. as ''Studies in Turkic and Mongolic Linguistics'', RoutledgeCurzon. . *1964
"The Future of Tangut (Hsi Hsia) Studies"
''Asia Major'' (New Series) volume 11, part 1: 54–77. *1972. ''An Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. *2016

With an introduction by Imre Galambos. With Editorial notes and an Index by Andrew West. Prepared for publication by

Michael Everson Michael Everson (born January 1963) is an American and Irish linguistics, linguist, Character encoding, script encoder, typesetting, typesetter, type designer and Publishing, publisher. He runs a publishing company called Evertype, through which ...

. Portlaoise: Evertype. .

References

*C. Edmund Bosworth, "Introduction" to Clauson's ''Studies in Turkic and Mongolic Linguistics'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Clauson, Gerard Leslie Makins 1891 births 1974 deaths English orientalists People educated at Eton College People educated at Summer Fields School Tangutologists Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Linguists of Turkic languages Presidents of the Royal Asiatic Society

Archives

Selected works

References