Tom Dutton | |
---|---|
Born | Thomas Edward Dutton 10 May 1935 Dayboro, Queensland, Australia |
Died | 21 December 2021[1] |
Occupation | Linguist |
Spouse | Corinne Dutton |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Queensland |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Australian National University |
Main interests | Papuan linguistics |
Tom Dutton (born Thomas Edward Dutton on 10 May 1935 in Dayboro,Queensland,Australia;died 21 December 2021) was an Australian linguist specialising in Papuan languages (particularly the Southeast Papuan languages) and other languages of Papua New Guinea. [1] [2]
Thomas Edward Dutton was born on 10 May 1935 in Dayboro (near Brisbane) in Queensland,Australia. Dutton's paternal grandparents were English,his maternal grandparents were German. He the eldest of five children and had two brothers and two sisters. His father,Lewis (Ted) Dutton,was the Head Teacher of Mayfield State School. In 1936,Lewis Dutton was transferred to a rural two-teacher school in Gooburrum,located near Bundaberg,where he worked for 37 years. As a result,Dutton spent most of his childhood in Bundaberg. [3]
In June 1957,he was Officer-in-Charge (Head Teacher) at Rigo Intermediate School,in Central District (now Central Province),Papua New Guinea,located east of Port Moresby. In 1959,he was promoted to Area Education Officer in Port Moresby Subdistrict (now the National Capital District) and was in charge of Administration and Mission Schools from Manumanu to Gaire. In 1962,he obtained his BA in English from the University of Queensland. [3]
From 1963 to 1965,Dutton was a Research Fellow at the Queensland Speech Survey in the Department of English at the University of Queensland. While working as a researcher,he studied for a master's degree in English linguistics. He finished his PhD dissertation at the University of Queensland in 1969 and obtained a research fellowship at the Research School for Pacific Studies (RSPacS) that same year. [3]
Dutton worked as a researcher at the Australian National University (ANU) from 1969 to 1974,where he was a specialist on Southeast Papuan languages. His research colleagues at the ANU included Donald Laycock,a specialist in languages of the Sepik region;Clemens Voorhoeve,a specialist in West Papuan languages;and Darrell Tryon,a specialist in the languages of eastern Island Melanesia. [3]
He was Professor at the University of Papua New Guinea from 1975 to 1977 and returned to Australia afterwards. [3]
Dutton was the managing editor of Pacific Linguistics from 1987 to 1996. He retired in 1997,but continued to publish works in linguistics. In 2010,Dutton published a book on the reconstruction of Proto-Koiarian. [3]
He passed away in December,2021,at the age of eighty-six. [1]
In 1962,Dutton married Corinne Scott from Nanango,near Kingaroy. [3]
The following are Dutton's works published by Pacific Linguistics. [4]
The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and East Timor by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a genetic relationship.
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby.
Donald Laycock (1936–1988) was an Australian linguist and anthropologist. He is best remembered for his work on the languages of Papua New Guinea.
Stephen Adolphe Wurm was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist.
The Piawi languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken in the Schraeder Range of the Madang Highlands of Papua New Guinea that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They are now connected to the Arafundi and Madang languages.
Elseng is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 300 people in the Indonesian province of Papua. It is also known as Morwap, which means "what is it?" ‘Morwap’ is vigorously rejected as a language name by speakers and government officials.
The Greater Awyu or Digul River languages, known in earlier classifications with more limited scope as Awyu–Dumut (Awyu–Ndumut), are a family of perhaps a dozen Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in eastern West Papua in the region of the Digul River. Six of the languages are sufficiently attested for a basic description; it is not clear how many of the additional names may be separate languages.
The Pauwasi languages are a likely family of Papuan languages, mostly in Indonesia. The subfamilies are at best only distantly related. The best described Pauwasi language is Karkar, across the border in Papua New Guinea. They are spoken around the headwaters of the Pauwasi River in the Indonesian-PNG border region.
The Mek languages are a well established family of Papuan languages spoken by the Mek peoples. They form a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG) in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and of Malcolm Ross (2005).
The Duna–Pogaya (Duna–Bogaia) languages are a proposed small family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classification of Voorhoeve (1975), Ross (2005) and Usher (2018), consisting of two languages, Duna and Bogaya, which in turn form a branch of the larger Trans–New Guinea family. Glottolog, which is based largely on Usher, however finds the connections between the two languages to be tenuous, and the connection to TNG unconvincing.
The Kamula–Elevala languages are a small family of the Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in the region of the Elevala River.
The Mombum languages, also known as the Komolom or Muli Strait languages, are a pair of Trans–New Guinea languages, Mombum (Komolom) and Koneraw, spoken on Komolom Island just off Yos Sudarso Island, and on the southern coast of Yos Sudarso Island, respectively, on the southern coast of New Guinea. Komolom Island is at the southern end of the Muli Strait.
The East Strickland or Strickland River languages are a family of Papuan languages.
The Demta–Sentani languages form a language family of coastal Indonesian Papua near the Papua New Guinea border.
The Palei languages constitute a branch of the Torricelli language family according to Laycock (1975). They are spoken in mountainous regions of eastern Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea.
Suki is a Gogodala-Suki language spoken by about 3500 people several miles inland along the Fly River in southwestern Papua New Guinea.
Molof is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 200 people in Molof village, Senggi District, Keerom Regency.
Darrell T. Tryon was a New Zealand-born linguist, academic, and specialist in Austronesian languages. Specifically, Tryon specialised in the study of the languages of the Pacific Islands, particularly Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and the French-speaking Pacific.
The East Pauwasi languages are a family of Papuan languages spoken in north-central New Guinea, on both sides of the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border. They may either form part of a larger Pauwasi language family along with the Western Pauwasi languages, or they could form an independent language family.
R. David Zorc is an American linguist primarily known for his work on Austronesian languages and linguistics, particularly the Philippine languages.