Johannes Cornelis Anceaux

JC Anceaux in New Guinea (1959)

Johannes Cornelis Anceaux (born July 4, 1920 in Schiedam , † August 6, 1988 in Leiden ) was a Dutch orientalist and philologist .

Life

After successfully completing high school, Anceaux began studying Indonesian literature in 1938 at the University of Leiden . In order to pass the subsequent candidate exam, he learned the languages ​​Sanskrit and Arabic. He dealt with Islam and its cultural history. After a year, however, he was called up for military service and was only able to continue his studies after the surrender in the Netherlands. After the University of Leiden was closed in 1940, he went to the University of Amsterdam , where he passed his candidate examination in 1942. Further research was difficult at the time because he was hiding in order to evade a work assignment. However, he was later arrested and taken to several Dutch and German labor camps.

In 1947 he took up his studies again and engaged in comparative linguistic research of the Austronesian languages in Malaysia and Java . He worked for six years as an assistant for Arabic language at the Legatum Warnerianum of the Leiden University Library , thereby becoming familiar with Persian and Turkish. In 1948 he married Maria Rosinga, from which marriage two daughters and a son emerged. After some time of preparation, he began to prepare his doctoral thesis on the subject of Over de geschiedenis van de Indonesische taalkunde (freely translated into German: On the history of Indonesian linguistics ), devoting his attention to the Wolio language. At that time it was a virtually unknown Southeast Sulawesi language, some of which were linguists in Leiden. In 1952 he received his doctorate under Cornelius Christiaan Berg (1900-1990) with a description of the language.

Linguistic research kept him busy in the following years. In 1954 he went to Western New Guinea for three years on behalf of the Royal Institute for Linguistics, Geography and Ethnology to undertake linguistic studies. In doing so, he gained an additional understanding of the language and devoted himself to the description of the Nimboran language and other Papuan languages ​​that were spoken north of the Sentanimeer. He then worked until 1962 as a language officer for the office of population statistics in Holland. During that time he became a member of the Spelling Commission for Dutch Names in the Dutch part of New Guinea and took part in an expedition to the Sternberge (Dutch: Sterrengebergte , Indonesian: Pegunungan Bintang , English: Star Mountains ) in 1959 . In 1955 he had also taken on the training of civil servants at the Malay Institute and continued this task in New Guinea in 1960/61.

The results of his linguistic research appeared in two monographs under the titles The linguistic situation in the islands of Yapen, Kurudu, Nau and Miosnum, New Guinea (freely translated into German: The linguistic situation on the islands of Yapen, Kurudu, Nau and Miosnum, New Guinea ) , 1961, and The Nimboran language (freely translated into German: The Nimboran language ), 1965. In 1962 he became a lecturer at the Department of Austronesian Language at the University of Leiden, where he later rose to senior lecturer position. In 1967/68 he was a visiting professor at the University of California, San Diego , where he gave lectures on oceanic languages ​​and Afrikaans . He also took part in an expedition to the Pacific organized by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography . This gave him the opportunity to devote himself to linguistic studies in Fiji and the New Hebrides .

After CC Berg retired in 1971, Anceaux took over the chair for Indonesian and Oceanic Linguistics at the Leiden University by royal appointment on August 14, 1971. He took office on September 1, 1971 and delivered his inaugural address Indonesië en Oceanië on December 11 of the same year . Een taalkundige terreinverkenning (freely translated into German: Indonesia and Oceania. A linguistic area research ). In the following years he gave lectures on the general principles of comparative linguistics, anthropology and, in addition, lectures on the languages Tok Pisin , Malagasy , Tagalog , Soendaas and other Pacific dialects.

He also participated as chairman of the sub-faculty of non-western languages ​​and cultures from 1973 to 1975 and 1978 to 1983. From 1977 to 1982 he was a member of the department of comparative linguistics. He was a member of the Institute for Languages ​​and Cultures of Southeast Asia and Oceania and the Oceania Working Group. From 1968 to 1972 he was also a member of the Royal Institute for Linguistics, Regional Studies and Ethnology, 1977/77 Faculty Council, 1978 to 1984 member of the Dutch Organization for Dutch Research (WOTRO), and from 1984 to 1988 he sat on the advisory committee of the Oceania Association and was a member of the Oriental Society of the Netherlands from 1969 to 1976.

From 1971 he actively participated in the training of Indonesian linguists at the national language center in Jakarta, where he also looked after many scholars from the area in the Netherlands. Due to his deteriorating health, he suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , he withdrew from his university teaching position in Leiden on December 11, 1985 and was honorably released into early retirement by royal resolution of February 1, 1986. Shortly before the end of his life he published his introductory dictionary and his grammar for the Wolio language, published in 1952.

literature

• H. Beukers: Album Scholasticum academiae lugduno-batavae MCMLXXV-MCMLXXXIX. (1975-1989), Leids University Fund, Leiden, 1991
• KA Adelaar: In memoriam Johannes Cornelis Anceaux . In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- and Volkenkunde, Rituals and Socio-Cosmic Order in Eastern Indonesian Societies. Part 1, Nusa Tenggara Timur 145 (1989), No. 1, Leiden, 1–7 ( Online PDF; 1102 kB, Dutch)