Gabriel Manessy (28 March 1923 – 17 June 1996) was a French linguist who worked on Niger-Congo languages, especially the

Gur languages The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur or Mabia, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. They are spoken in the Sahelian and savanna regions of West Africa, namely: in most areas of Burkina Faso, and in south-central Mali, northeastern Iv ...

. Manessy is known for his historical-comparative work on the

. He wrote extensively on the

Gurunsi Gurunsi or Grusi may refer to: * Gurunsi people, a people of northern Ghana and south and central Burkina Faso ** Gurunsi languages The Grũsi or Gurunsi languages, also known as the East Mabia languages,Bodomo, Adams. 2020.Mabia: Its Etymologic ...

, Oti-Volta, and Senufo languages.Nicolaï, Robert (2001).
Hommage à Gabriel Manessy
''Leçons d’Afrique : Filiations, ruptures et reconstitutions des langues'', 7-9. Peeters.

Career

Manessy was born on 28 March 1923. After studying literature, his interest shifted to ethnology. After working briefly at the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

, he taught linguistics at the Faculty of Letters of Dakar and became the first Director of the

Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar The Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar (French for "Center of Applied Linguistics of Dakar"), abbreviated CLAD, is a language institute, which especially plays an important role in the orthographical standardization of the Wolof language. T ...

(CLAD). He was appointed Professor in 1964. He supervised Masters students in African Linguistics, first at Dakar, then at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at

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. ...

. From 1969 to 1988, he taught at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at the

University of Nice A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. He retired in 1988. Manessy died on 17 June 1996 at the age of 73.

References

External links

Publications on Persée
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manessy, Gabriel 1923 births 1996 deaths Linguists from France Linguists of Niger–Congo languages 20th-century linguists