Peter John Mayo

Last updated
Peter John Mayo
Born16 February 1944
DiedApril 2004
Alma mater University of Birmingham
OccupationEnglish Slavist
Employer(s) University of Sheffield, University of Exeter
Notable workPocket English-Belarusian-Russian Dictionary

Peter John Mayo (16 February 1944, London - 1 January 2004) was an English slavist and promoter of Belarusian studies in Great Britain.

Contents

Career

Mayo was born in London. He graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1966. [1]

From 1969 to 1997 he worked as a lecturer at the University of Sheffield, and since 1998 at the University of Exeter. He was a member of the British University Association of Slavists (in 1978-80 its secretary). [1]

In 1982 Mayo earned a PhD in philology. [1]

Belarusian studies

Mayo studied the lexicography, morphology and syntax of the Belarusian and Russian languages. He authored "Grammar of the Byelorussian" reviewed in the Journal of Belarusian Studies by Shirin Akiner [2] as well as section "Belarusian language" in the collective monograph "Slavic languages", numerous articles on Belarusian and Slavic studies. He also wrote reviews of Belarusian linguistic research, textbooks and dictionaries. [1] [3] [4]

In 1979-88 Mayo was the editor of the Journal of Byelorussian Studies, [5] and from 1989 of the Slavic Section of “Modern Languages Studies”. [6] He prepared an English-Belarusian dictionary, a version of which was published in Minsk in 1995 as "Pocket English-Belarusian-Russian Dictionary". [1] [4] Mayo was one of the editors of English-Belarusian Dictionary published in 2013. [7]

Mayo was a longtime member of the Anglo-Belarusian Society and a trustee of the Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum in London. [8]

Death

Mayo died in April 2004. The University of Sheffield prize for Russian was renamed in his honour. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarusian language</span> East Slavic language

Belarusian is an East Slavic language. It is one of the two official languages in Belarus, alongside Russian. Additionally, it is spoken in some parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries.

Ruthenian is an exonymic linguonym for a closely related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly those spoken from the 15th to 18th centuries in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in East Slavic regions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Regional distribution of those varieties, both in their literary and vernacular forms, corresponded approximately to the territories of the modern states of Belarus and Ukraine. By the end of the 18th century, they gradually diverged into regional variants, which subsequently developed into the modern Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Rusyn languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francysk Skaryna</span> Belarusian translator and printer

Francysk Skaryna was a Belarusian humanist, physician, and translator. He is known to be one of the first book printers in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in all of Eastern Europe, laying the groundwork for the development of the Belarusian izvod of the Church Slavonic language.

The phonological system of the modern Belarusian language consists of at least 44 phonemes: 5 vowels and 39 consonants. Consonants may also be geminated. There is no absolute agreement on the number of phonemes; rarer or contextually variant sounds are included by some scholars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum</span> Library in London, England, United Kingdom

Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum in north London, England, is the only library outside Belarus to collect exclusively in the field of Belarusian studies. It was formally established as an independent institution in 1971 and is owned by a charitable trust. The library — alongside the Belarusian Catholic Mission in England, Anglo-Belarusian Society and the Journal of Belarusian Studies — had a significant role in encouraging Belarusian studies in the United Kingdom and outside Belarus in second half of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceslaus Sipovich</span> Belarusian Greek Catholic bishop and émigré

Ceslaus Sipovich was a bishop of the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church and a notable Belarusian émigré social and religious leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Nadson</span> Belarusian Greek Catholic priest, scholar, and émigré leader

Alexander Nadson was the Apostolic Visitor for Belarusian Greek-Catholic faithful abroad, scholar, translator and a notable Belarusian émigré social and religious leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarusians in the United Kingdom</span>

Belarusians in the United Kingdom are Belarusians living in the United Kingdom and British people of Belarusian background or descent. The 2001 UK census recorded 1,154 Belarus-born people living in the UK. The 2011 census recorded 4,031 Belarus-born people resident in England, 102 in Wales, 211 in Scotland and 62 in Northern Ireland. Nowadays, organised community life exists only in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations into Belarusian</span>

The first translation into Belarusian was by Francysk Skaryna. He printed his first book titled The Psalter, in the Old Belarusian recension of Church Slavonic on August 6, 1517, in Prague. He continued his printing work in Vilnius. The culmination of his life's work was a printing of the Bible in the Old Belarusian recension of Church Slavonic. From 1517 to 1519 he printed 23 books of the Bible. Belarusian bible was the first translation in an Eastern Slavic language and one of the first among European languages.

The Anglo-Belarusian Society is one of the oldest Belarus-related organisations in the UK with an object of “diffusion, interchange and publication of knowledge relating to the Belarusian people, their land, history and culture”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nil Hilevich</span> Belarusian poet

Nil Symonavich Hilevich was a Belarusian poet, a professor in the Belarusian State University, the author of more than 80 books of poetry, publications, and translations, and one of the founders of the Francišak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society.

Archimandrite Leo Haroshka, MIC was a Belarusian Catholic priest of the Byzantine rite, religious and social activist, researcher of the history of religion in Belarus and one of the founders of the Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library in London. His pseudonyms are LA Іskra, Anatoí Žmienia, Prakop Cavalieri and others.

Guy Reginald Pierre Picarda was a scholar and promoter of Belarusian culture and music, a founder of the Anglo-Belarusian Society and the Journal of Belarusian Studies.

Robert Auty, FBA was an English philologist who specialised in Slavonic languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnold McMillin</span> British historian (born 1941)

Arnold Barratt McMillin is a British scholar of Belarusian and Russian studies, Emeritus Professor of Russian Literature, and the author of the first English-language history of Belarusian literature.

Jim Dingley is a researcher and promoter of Belarusian culture in the UK as well as a translator of Belarusian literature.

<i>The Journal of Belarusian Studies</i> Academic journal

The Journal of Belarusian Studies is an English language academic journal in the field of Belarusian studies. It was described as “one of the longest lasting Belarusian publishing projects in Great Britain and one of the most authoritative periodicals in the field of Belarusian studies in the world”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Maldzis</span> Belarusian writer and scholar (1932–2022)

Adam Maldzis was a Belarusian historian, literary critic, author and journalist. He was described as "a patriarch of Belarusian humanities", "an excellent connoisseur of literature" and "a living bridge between Belarus and the scholars of Belarusian studies around the world". He was “the author of unique studies of the Old Belarusian literature”.

Paval Navara, also romanised as Paul Navara, was a Belarusian émigré public figure and co-founder of the Anglo-Belarusian Society.

Belarusian studies is a field of research dedicated to Belarusian language, literature and culture.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Гардзіенка, Наталля (2010). Беларусы ў Вялікабрытаніі [Belarusians in Great Britain, by Natalla Hardzijenka]. Minsk: Згуртаванне беларусаў свету Бацькаўшчына. p. 477. ISBN   978-985-6887-63-8.
  2. Akiner, S. (1976-12-16). "Mayo, P. J. A Grammar of Byelorussian. Anglo-Byelorussian Society in association with the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, 1976. 66 pages. Bibliography". Journal of Belarusian Studies. 3 (4): 381–381. doi: 10.30965/20526512-00304012 . ISSN   0075-4161.
  3. "Peter J. Mayo | The Journal of Belarusian Studies". belarusjournal.com. Retrieved 2021-05-29.
  4. 1 2 Zadencka, Maria; Plakans, Andrejs; Lawaty, Andreas, eds. (2015). East and Central European History Writing in Exile 1939-1989. On the Boundary of Two Worlds. Vol. 39. p. 126. ISBN   978-90-04-29969-6.
  5. Mayo, Peter (1982). "Foreword". Journal of Belarusian Studies. 5 (2). Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  6. Т.М. Суша "Мэё, Пітэр Джон" - [Mayo, Piter John, by T.M. Susha]. Беларуская энцыклапедыя ў 18 тамах [Belarusian Encyclopedia, in 18 volumes]. Vol. 11. Minsk: Bielaruskaja encyklapiedyja. 2000. p. 57.
  7. English-Belarusian Disctionary (PDF). Minsk: Vysheishaya Shkola Publishing House. 2013.
  8. "Arnold McMillin: "When Belarusians came, they started with the library"". Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum. 2016-06-16. Archived from the original on 2021-11-09. Retrieved 2021-05-29.
  9. "The Peter Mayo Prize in Russian" (PDF). p. 8. Retrieved 2021-07-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)