Leonard Robert Palmer
Leonard Robert Palmer (5 June 1906, Bristol – 26 August 1984, Pitney, Somerset) was author and
Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. Palmer made some significant contributions to the study of Classical languages, and in the area of historical linguistics
.
Career
Palmer was educated at Cardiff High School, the University of South Wales, Trinity College, Cambridge, and the University of Vienna.
He started his academic career in 1931, teaching classics at
Manchester University. He held the Chair of Classical Literature at King's College, London between 1945 and 1946, followed by the Chair of Greek there from 1946 to 1952.[1]
During
Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, at the so-called Hut 4
. Their work was the translation, interpretation and distribution of enemy messages.
A strong focus of Palmer's work was the
Latin language
; he later followed this with a companion work on the Greek language, focusing on its development from Linear B and its evolution into multiple dialects throughout the Aegean region.
Palmer played a role in the controversies over the dating of archaeological finds from
Sir Arthur Evans, and favoured a later date.[2]
In his book Descriptive & Comparative Linguistics (1972), among other things, he took issue with the Chomskian linguistics.
Proto-Greek studies
Palmer was one of the linguists who were investigating the theories that some unknown language or languages were spoken in prehistoric Greece before the settlement of
Proto-Greek speakers in the area. So this is the question of an ancient linguistic Pre-Greek substrate in Greece. According to Palmer, this may have been one of the ancient Anatolian languages, perhaps a Luwian language.[3][4] He suggested that the language of Linear A might be Luwian on the basis of -ss- and -nd- (corresponding to -ss- and -nth- in mainland Greece) placenames being widespread in Western Anatolia.[5]
Honours
Palmer was elected Secretary and then President of the British
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. In 1981, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Innsbruck
.
Publications
- The Greek language (The Great languages) by Leonard Robert Palmer, 355 Pages, Published 1980 by Humanities Press ISBN 0-391-01203-7
- Descriptive & Comparative Linguistics (Updated) A Critical Introduction (Studies in General Linguistics) by Leonard R. Palmer, Paperback, 430 Pages, Published 1979 by Faber & Faber ISBN 0-571-10690-0
- The Latin Language. by Leonard Robert Palmer. Paperback, 372 Pages, Published 1988 by University Of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2136-X
- New Guide to the Palace of Knossos. by Leonard R. Palmer, L.R Palmer Hardcover, 144 Pages, Published 1969 by Faber And Faber ISBN 0-571-08727-2
- Leonard Robert Palmer, Interpretation of Mycenaean Greek Texts (Oxford University Press academic monograph reprints) ISBN 0198131445
- Leonard Robert Palmer, On the Knossos tablets: The find-places of the Knossos tablets. Book, 1963. 251 p.
- Leonard Robert Palmer, Mycenaeans and Minoans; Aegean prehistory in the light of the Linear B tablets. 2d rev. ed. 1965. 368 p
- Leonard Robert Palmer, A grammar of the post-Ptolemaic papyri (15 editions published between 1945 and 1948)
- Leonard Robert Palmer, The language of Homer (1962)
- Leonard Robert Palmer, Aegean chronology (1984)
- Palmer, L. R. (1958). "Luvian and Linear A". Transactions of the Philological Society. 57: 75–100. .
References
- ^ "King's College London - People". www.kcl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 6 May 2011.
- ^ OBITUARY: PROF LEONARD PALMER The Times, 29 August 1984
- JSTOR 147122.
- .
- S2CID 245127624.
Further reading
- "Obituary: Prof. Leonard Palmer" (PDF). The Times. 29 August 1984.[permanent dead link]
- Morpurgo Davies, A. and Meid, W. (eds), Studies in Greek, Italic and Indo-European Linguistics offered to Leonard R. Palmer on the occasion of his seventieth Birthday. Innsbruck 1976. ISBN 3851245318
