Pierre R. Léon (March 12, 1926 – September 11, 2013) was a

French-Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the prov ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and writer.

Life and career

Léon was born in Ligré,

Touraine Touraine (; ) is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher, Indre and Vien ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, on March 12, 1926. He received a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the University of

Besançon Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland. Capi ...

in 1960 and a

Doctor of Arts The Doctor of Arts (D.A.; occasionally D.Arts or Art.D. from the Latin language, Latin ''artium doctor'') is a List of academic disciplines, discipline-based terminal degree, terminal doctorate, doctoral academic degree, degree that was originall ...

from the Sorbonne in 1972, where he also worked as an assistant

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

. He was a research professor at the University of Besançon and taught at the University of Pau. He went on to teach at

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

and then at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, gaining professor

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

status there. He founded the academic journals ''Studia Phonetica'', ''3L'' and ''Information et Communication''. At U of T, he founded and headed the laboratory of

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

research in the department of

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Studies. He has written several important books on French linguistics. As a fiction writer, his authorship has earned him multiple accolades.

Death

Léon died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

on September 11, 2013, in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Selected publications

Fiction

* ''Les Voleurs d’étoiles de Saint-Arbroussepoil'', Montreal, Leméac, 1982 * ''Pigou, Fiflard et compagnie'', Winnipeg, Éditions des Plaines, 1993 * ''Sur la piste des Jolicoeur'', Montreal, VLB, 1993 * ''L’Effrontée de Cuba'', Toronto, GREF, 2007

Non-fiction

* With Parth Bhatt, ''Structure du français moderne'', 1988 / 3rd edition, Canadian Scholars Press, 2005 * ''Phonétisme et prononciations du français'', Paris, Nathan-Fac, 1992 / 3rd edition, 1998 / 4th edition, Armand-Colin, 2005 / 5th edition, Armand-Colin, 2007 * With Monique Léon, ''La prononciation du français'', Paris, Nathan, 1997 / 2nd edition, Armand Colin, 2009

References

External links

Pierre Léon - Notice Biographique (In Italian and French)
by Laura Santone {{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Pierre 1926 births 2013 deaths Linguists from Canada Linguists from France 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Academic staff of the University of Toronto