Harry Leonard Shorto (19 September 1919 – 30 July 1995) was a British philologist and linguist who specialized on the

Mon language The Mon language, formerly known as Peguan and Talaing, is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon people. Mon, like the related Khmer language, but unlike most languages in mainland Southeast Asia, is not tonal. The Mon language is a recogn ...

and

Mon-Khmer The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...

studies. He authored both a modern Mon dictionary and a dictionary of Mon epigraphy. He worked for most of his career 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 ...

, University of London, finally as Professor of Mon-Khmer Studies at the University of London (

) until his retirement in 1984.

Life and career

Born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Shorto was educated at the Royal Masonic School for Boys in his youth before winning a full scholarship to attend

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

at the age of 17. At St. John's he excelled in studies in both modern and medieval languages and was a rower for the university in

The Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known as the U ...

. The onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

interrupted his education, and he served first as a

non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is an enlisted rank, enlisted leader, petty officer, or in some cases warrant officer, who does not hold a Commission (document), commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority b ...

in the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

as a specialist in

artillery battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to f ...

on the coast of

North Norfolk North Norfolk is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Cromer, and the largest town is North Walsham. The district also includes the towns of Fakenham, Holt, Norfolk, Holt, Shering ...

. He became a commissioned officer with the rank of Major, and was stationed overseas in Burma working for

British Intelligence The Government of the United Kingdom maintains several intelligence agencies that deal with secret intelligence. These agencies are responsible for collecting, analysing and exploiting foreign and domestic intelligence, providing military intell ...

. His time spent in Burma during WWII is what led to his interest in the Mon and Mon-Khmer languages. After the war ended, Shorto returned to St John's College, Cambridge to complete his degree; graduating in the Spring of 1948. The following Fall 1948 he joined the faculty of the

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. There he taught courses in Austro-Asiatic and Austronesian families of languages in addition to being a lecturer in Mon in the Department of Languages and Culture of South East Asia and the Islands. In 1964 he was appointed as Reader and in 1971 he was made a Professor of Mon-Khmer studies. He retired from his post as professor in 1984.

Contributions

Shorto is the author of two standard reference works, ''A Dictionary of Modern Spoken Mon'' (1962) and the highly respected author of the standard reference to epigraphic Mon - ''A Dictionary of the Mon Inscriptions'' (1971) - as well as the classic dictionary. His magnum opus was the ''Mon-Khmer comparative dictionary'', which was meant to be published in the early 1980s. It was rediscovered by his daughter Anna, and was published only in 2006. It presents 2,246 etymologies with almost 30,000 lexical citations. It is the most extensive analysis of Mon-Khmer to appear since Wilhelm Schmidt laid the foundations of comparative Mon-Khmer with the ''Grundzüge einer Lautlehre der Mon-Khmer-Sprachen'' (1905) and ''Die Mon-Khmer-Völker'' (1906). (For more information, see

Proto-Austroasiatic language Proto-Austroasiatic is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austroasiatic languages. Proto-Mon–Khmer (i.e., all Austroasiatic branches except for Munda) has been reconstructed in Harry L. Shorto's ''Mon–Khmer Comparative Dictionary'', while a ...

Works

*1960. Word and syllable patterns in Palaung. ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'' 23:544-57. *1961. “A Mon Genealogy of Kings: Observations on the Nidana Arambhakatha,” In In D. G. E. Hall (ed.). Historians of South-East Asia, London: Oxford University Press, pp. 62–72. *1962. ''A Dictionary of Modern Spoken Mon.'' *Shorto, H. L. (1963). The 32 myos in the medieval Mon kingdom. ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', 26(3), 572-591. *1963. The Structural pattern of northern Mon-Khmer languages. In H. L. Shorto (ed.), ''Linguistic Comparison in South-East Asia and the Pacific'', pp. 45–61. *1963. Shorto, Harry L.; Jacob, Judith M. & Simmonds, E. H. S.. ''Bibliographies of Mon-Khmer and Tai linguistics.'' London. *1971. ''A Dictionary of the Mon Inscriptions from the sixth to the sixteenth centuries.'' London: Oxford University Press. *1972. “The word for ‘two’ in Austroasiatic.” Jacqueline M. C. Thomas & Lucien Bernot (eds.). ''Langues et techniques, nature et société'', Vol. 1, “Approche linguistique”. Paris: Klincksieck. 233-35 *Shorto, H. L. (1973). Three Mon-Khmer word families. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 36(02), 374-381. *Shorto, H. L. (1976). The vocalism of proto-Mon-Khmer. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publication, 1041-1067. *Shorto, H. L. (1978). The Planets, the Days of the Week, and the Points of the Compass: Orientation Symbolism in Burma. Natural Symbols in South East Asia, 152-164. *2006. ''A Mon-Khmer comparative dictionary.'' Edited by Paul J. Sidwell, Doug Cooper, and Christian Bauer. (Pacific Linguistics) Canberra: Australian National University. * Shorto, H. L. No Date. ''Nidana Ramadhipati-katha.'' Unpublished typescript translation of pp. 34–44, 61-264 of Phra Candakanto (editor). On binding Rajawamsa Dhammaceti Mahapitakadhara. Pak Lat, Siam (1912).

References

* Shorto, Harry L.; Sidwell, Paul; Doug Cooper and Christian Bauer, eds. 2006. ''A Mon-Khmer Comparative Dictionary''. Canberra: Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics. .

External links

Harry Shorto papers
( SEAlang Library)
Harry Shorto in Burma: Photographs taken in the mid 1950sHarry Shorto Papers Archive
curated by

Paul Sidwell Paul James Sidwell is an Australian linguist based in Canberra, Australia, who has held research and lecturing positions at the Australian National University. Sidwell, who is also an expert and consultant in forensic linguistics, is most nota ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shorto, Harry Leonard 1919 births 1995 deaths British philologists Historical linguists Linguists of Austroasiatic languages British orientalists Academics of SOAS University of London Academics of the University of London Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge 20th-century British linguists 20th-century British philologists

Life and career

Contributions

Works

See also

References

External links