Leonard Robert Palmer

Leonard Robert Palmer (born June 5, 1906 in Bristol , † August 26, 1984 in Pitney , Somerset ) was a British Indo-European and comparative linguist .

Palmer was a Fellow of Worcester College of Oxford University . During World War II he worked at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) in Bletchley Park in Hut 4 , whose job was to translate, interpret and distribute enemy messages. From 1952 to 1971 he held a professorship for Comparative ( comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies ) at Oxford University. He was elected Secretary and later President of the British Philological Society . He was also a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute . In 1981 he was chosen for its cooperation with the linguistic Institute under the direction of Wolfgang Meid from the University of Innsbruck for honorary doctorate appointed.

The focus of Palmer's work was Greek linguistics , in particular the language and dating of the Mycenaean Linear B tablets as well as the pre-Greek languages ​​in the Aegean region and their origins and chronology. Palmer has also authored a widely translated and reprinted account of the Latin language .

Fonts (selection)

• with Paul Åström , Leon Pomerance : Studies in Aegean Chronology. Åström, Gothenburg 1984. - Review by: Gisela Walberg, in: Gnomon 57, 1985, 578-580, ( online ).
• Some new Minoan-Mycenaean Gods. Institute for Linguistics of the University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck 1981 (Innsbruck Contributions to Linguistics. Lectures and Smaller Papers, Vol. 26).
• The Greek language. Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands 1980, reprinted The Bristol Classical Press, London 1996 (The Great languages), ISBN 0-391-01203-7 . - Review by: Jon-Christian Billigmeier, in: The American Journal of Philology 104, 1983, 303-306, ( online ).
  • German translation: The Greek language. Basics of the history of language and historical-comparative grammar. Institute for Linguistics at the University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck 1986 (Innsbruck Contributions to Linguistics, Vol. 50).
• Descriptive and Comparative Linguistics. A Critical Introduction. Faber and Faber, London 1972 (Studies in General Linguistics), ISBN 0-571-10690-0 . - Review of: RH Robins, in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , University of London 36, 1973, 736-738, ( online ); Robert A. Hall Jr, in: Journal of Linguistics 10, 1974, 164-171, ( online ); Abner Cohen, in: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36, 1973, 736-738, ( online ).
  • Spanish translation: Introducción crítica a la lingüística descriptiva y comparada. Versión española de José L. Melena . Editorial Gredos, Madrid 1975.
  • Italian translation: Linguistica descrittiva e comparativa. Einaudi, Torino 1979.
• A New Guide to the Palace of Knossos. Faber and Faber, London 1969, ISBN 0-571-08727-2 .
• with John Chadwick (Ed.): Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium on Mycenaean Studies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1966, ( excerpts online ).
• with John Boardman: On the Knossos tablets. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1963. Therein: LR Palmer, The find-places of the Knossos tablets. John Boardman, The dates of the Knossos tablets. - Review of: MSF Hood, in: Gnomon 37, 1965, 321-325, ( online ).
• The Interpretation of Mycenaean Greek Texts. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1963 (Oxford University Press academic monograph reprints), ISBN 0198131445 . - Review of: John Chadwick, in: Gnomon 36, 1964, 321-327, ( online ).
• The language of Homer. In: A Companion to Homer. Edited by Alan JB Wace and Frank H. Stubbings . MacMillan and Company, London and Toronto 1962, 75-178.
• Mycenaeans and Minoans. Aegean prehistory in the light of the Linear B tablets. Faber and Faber, London 1961; Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1962; second revised ed., London 1965. - Review of: DHF Gray, in: Classical Review (New Series) 13, 1963, 87-91; Sara A. Immerwahr, in: American Journal of Philology 84, 1963, 304-308, ( online ); Paul Wathelet, in: Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 43, 1965, 595-598, ( online ).
  • Italian translation: Minoici e Micenei. L'antica civiltà egea dopo la decifrazione della Lineare B. Einaudi, Torino 1969.
• The Latin Language. University of Oklahoma Press 1954, ISBN 0-8061-2136-X , ( online ).
  • German translation: The Latin language. Helmut Buske, Hamburg 1990, 2nd edition 2000.
  • Italian translation: La lingua latina. Giulio Einaudi Editore, Torino 1977, most recently 2002 (Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi Ns).
  • Spanish translation: Introducción al latín. Planeta, Barcelona 1974, 2nd edition Ariel, Barcelona 1984.
• A grammar of the post-Ptolemaic papyri. Vol. 1: Accidence and Word-formation , Part 1: The Suffixes . Geoffrey Cumberlege, London 1945; Oxford University Press, Oxford 1946 and more often (Publications of the Philological Society, 13). - (15 editions between 1945 and 1948). - Review of: Henry M. Hoenigswald, in: Language 24, 1948, 205-212, ( online ).
• Introduction to modern linguistics. MacMillan, London 1936.

literature

• Anna Morpurgo Davies , Wolfgang Meid (Ed.): Studies in Greek, Italic and Indo-European Linguistics offered to Leonard R. Palmer on the occasion of his seventieth Birthday. Innsbruck 1976, ISBN 3-85124-531-8 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Leonard Robert Palmer in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Leonard Palmer in the honor roll (Roll of Honor) of Bletchley Park
• Trecciani.it: Palmer, Leonard Robert
• Bletchley Park Roll of Honor