Bruce Biggs
Bruce Grandison Biggs
Early life
Born in
University career
In 1950 he won appointment to the first position in a New Zealand university dedicated to the teaching of the Māori language. The idea for this position came from Ralph Piddington, then head of the Anthropology Department at the University of Auckland. From 1951 to 1955 Biggs taught Stage 1 Māori language while completing his BA studies in education and anthropology. Proposals to advance Māori language study above Stage I level initially received much condemnation from academics in other disciplines: they expressed (unfounded) concerns about the lack of a sufficient body of written material on which to base a syllabus. After completing his MA, Biggs took leave to study structural linguistics at Bloomington, Indiana, where in 1957 he completed a PhD thesis entitled The Structure of New Zealand Maaori.
Linguistics
In 1958 Biggs and
Orthography for Māori
Biggs was a major proponent of the
Legacy
Biggs taught a number of people who went on to become well known academics in Māori studies, including Pat Hohepa,
Biggs was elected a Fellow of the
In the
Selected bibliography
Biggs published over 100 books and articles on Māori language and culture, Polynesian comparative linguistics, Polynesian languages and literature as well the Fijian and Rotuman languages. His most well-known books include:
- Maori Marriage (1960)
- The Complete English-Maori Dictionary (1966)
- Let's Learn Maori (1969) (revised editions 1973, 1998)
- Jones, Pei Te Hurinui (1995). Nga iwi o Tainui: the traditional history of the Tainui people: nga koorero tuku iho a nga tupuna. edited and annotated by Bruce Biggs. Auckland: ISBN 1-86940-119-0. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
References
- ^ [1] Archived 23 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Bruce Grandison Biggs " Obituaries " 2000 " Academy Annual Reports and Yearbooks " Reports " Publications " Royal Society of New Zealand". Royalsociety.org.nz. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
- ^ "No. 50362". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 31 December 1985. p. 30.
- ^ "No. 54256". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 30 December 1995. p. 33.
External links
- Royalsociety.org.nz
- Pawley, Andrew. (2001). Bruce Biggs, 1921–2000: A Tribute. Oceanic Linguistics, (40)1: 1–19.