Roy Andrew Miller
Encyclopedia
Roy Andrew Miller is a linguist
notable for his advocacy of Korean
and Japanese
as members of the Altaic group of languages.
Miller was born in Winona, Minnesota
, USA, on September 5, 1924. In 1953, he completed a PhD
in Chinese and Japanese at Columbia University in New York. Long a student of languages, his early work in the 1950s was largely with Chinese
and Tibetan
. For example, in 1969 he wrote the Encyclopædia Britannica
entry on the Tibeto-Burman Languages of South Asia
.
He was Professor of Linguistics at the International Christian University
in Tokyo
from 1955 to 1963. Subsequently he taught at Yale University
; between 1964 and 1970, he was chairman of the department of East and South Asian Languages and Literatures. From 1970 until 1989 he held a similar post at the University of Washington
in Seattle. Since then, he has taught in Europe
, mainly in Germany
and Scandinavia
.
Miller has written extensively on the Japanese language, from A Japanese Reader (1963) and The Japanese Language (1967) to Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages (1971) and Nihongo: In Defense of Japanese (1986). He later broadened his scope by linking Korean both to Japanese and Altaic, most notably in Languages and History: Japanese, Korean, and Altaic (1996).
On the occasion of his 75th birthday, Professors Karl Menges and Nelly Naumann prepared a Festschrift
highlighting his career and including articles on Altaic languages.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
notable for his advocacy of Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
as members of the Altaic group of languages.
Miller was born in Winona, Minnesota
Winona, Minnesota
Winona is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, in the U.S. State of Minnesota. Located in picturesque bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf....
, USA, on September 5, 1924. In 1953, he completed a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Chinese and Japanese at Columbia University in New York. Long a student of languages, his early work in the 1950s was largely with Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
and Tibetan
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
. For example, in 1969 he wrote the Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
entry on the Tibeto-Burman Languages of South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
.
He was Professor of Linguistics at the International Christian University
International Christian University
There are several rankings related to ICU, shown below.-Alumni rankings:According to the Weekly Economist's 2010 rankings and the PRESIDENT's article on 2006/10/16, graduates from ICU have the 24th best employment rate in 400 major companies, and their average graduate salary is the 4th best in...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
from 1955 to 1963. Subsequently he taught at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
; between 1964 and 1970, he was chairman of the department of East and South Asian Languages and Literatures. From 1970 until 1989 he held a similar post at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in Seattle. Since then, he has taught in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, mainly in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
.
Miller has written extensively on the Japanese language, from A Japanese Reader (1963) and The Japanese Language (1967) to Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages (1971) and Nihongo: In Defense of Japanese (1986). He later broadened his scope by linking Korean both to Japanese and Altaic, most notably in Languages and History: Japanese, Korean, and Altaic (1996).
On the occasion of his 75th birthday, Professors Karl Menges and Nelly Naumann prepared a Festschrift
Festschrift
In academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
highlighting his career and including articles on Altaic languages.
Books
- 1967a. The Japanese Language. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle.
- 1971. Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226527190.
- 1976. Studies in the Grammatical Tradition in Tibet. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- 1980. Origins of the Japanese Language: Lectures in Japan during the Academic Year 1977–78. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0295957662.
- 1982. Japan's Modern Myth: The Language and Beyond. Tokyo: John Weatherhill Inc. ISBN 083480168X.
- 1986. Nihongo: In Defence of Japanese. London: Athlone Press. ISBN 0485112515.
- 1993. Prolegomena to the First Two Tibetan Grammatical Treatises. (Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 30.) Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien.
- 1996. Languages and History: Japanese, Korean and Altaic. Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture. ISBN 9748299694.
Articles
- 1955a. "Studies in spoken Tibetan I: Phonemics." Journal of the American Oriental Society 75: 46–51.
- 1955c. "Notes on the Lhasa dialect of the early ninth century." Oriens 8: 284–291.
- 1955d. "The significance for comparative grammar of some ablauts in the Tibetan number-system". T'oung-pao 43: 287–296.
- 1955e. "The Independent Status of Lhasa dialect within Central Tibetan." Orbis 4.1: 49-55.
- 1956. "Segmental diachronic phonology of a Ladakh (Tibetan) dialect." Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morganländischen Gesellschaft 106: 345–362.
- 1956. "The Tibeto-Burman ablaut system." Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan / Kokusai Tōhō Gakusha Kaigi kiyō 1: 29–56.
- 1957. "The phonology of the Old Burmese vowel system as seen in the Myazedi inscription." Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan / Kokusai Tōhō Gakusha Kaigi kiyō 2: 39–43.
- 1962. "The Si-tu Mahapandita on Tibetan phonology." 湯浅八郎博士古稀記念論文集 / Yuasa Hachirō hakushi koki kinen ronbunshu / To Dr. Hachiro Yusasa; A Collection of Papers Commemorating His Seventieth Anniversary, 921–933. Tokyo: 国際基督教大学 / Kokusai Kirisutokyō Daigaku.
- 1966. "Early evidence for vowel harmony in Tibetan." Language 42: 252–277.
- 1967b. "Old Japanese phonology and the Korean–Japanese relationship."
- 1967c. "Some problems in Tibetan transcription of Chinese from Tun-huang." Monumenta Serica 27: 123–148 (publ. 1969).
- 2002. "The Middle Mongolian vocalic hiatus." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 55.1–3: 179–205.
- 2008 "The Altaic Aorist in *-Ra in Old Korean." Lubotsky, Alexander, ed. Evidence and counter-evidence : essays in honour of Frederik Kortlandt Amsterdam: Rodopi. (Studies in Slavic and general linguistics; 32-33) 267-282.
Reviews
- 1955b. Review of 稻葉正就 Inaba Shōju, チベット語古典文法学 / Chibettogo koten bunpōgaku [Classical Tibetan Language Grammatical Studies] Kyoto: 法藏館 Hōzōkan, 1954 (昭和 Shōwa 29). Language 31: 481–482.
- 1968. Review of András Róna-Tas, Tibeto-Mongolica: The Loanwords of Mongour and the Development of the Archaic Tibetan Dialects (Indo-Iranian Monographs 7), The Hague: Mouton, 1966. In Language 44.1: 147–168.
- 1974. "Sino-Tibetan: Inspection of a Conspectus." Journal of the American Oriental Society 94.2: 195-209.
- 1982. "Linguistic issues in the study of Tibetan Grammar." Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens und Archiv für indische Philosophie 26: 86-116.
- 1994. "A new grammar of written Tibetan." Review of Stephen Beyer, The Classical Tibetan Language, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. Journal of the American Oriental Society 114.1: 67–76.
- 2001 Review of Philip Denwood, "Tibetan", (London Oriental and African Language Library, vol. 3). Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1999. Journal of the American Oriental Society 121.1:125–128.