MURPHY, John D. Buffalo, NY 1921 — 24.7.1997. U.S. Linguist. Educated in Buffalo, studies at Harvard. In WW II translator of Japanese in Army Signal Corps in Arlington. In 1964-78 Research Professor at Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. As a linguist he is said to have been self-taught and mastered about 40 languages.

Publications: Much on African languages.

– A handbook of the Tamil language. 8+141 p. Washington DC 1957.

– With Champa Jarmul: A Nepali Newspaper reader. 9+274 p. Kensington 1984.

– With S. Vaidyanathan: Tamil Newspaper reader. 6+434 p. Kensington 1990.

– Also collaborated in newspaper readers of Amhara, Axerbaijani, Georgian, Hausa, Hijazi Arabic, Italian, Somali, Swahili and Turkish.

Sources: Obituary in The Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/08/07/john-murphy-dies-at-75/66cbfa87-c4ee-4772-ba6e-a37d7cb11136/).