GRAY, Louis Herbert. Newark, NJ 10.4.1875 — New York 18.8.1955. U.S. Indologist, Iranian Scholar and Linguist. Professor in New York. Studies at Princeton (A.B. 1896) and Columbia (A.M. 1898, Ph.D. 1900, under A. V. Williams Jackson). In 1900-02 chief cataloguer and Instructor of Indo-Iranian at Princeton, 1902-03 editor in the departments of etymology and modern history of India in the New International Encyclopedia, 1904-05 reviser of translations for the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1905-15 assistant editor and contributor to the E.R.E., 1915-18 editor of The Mythology of All Races. In 1918-19 member of the U.S. Peace Negotiations Committee and 1920 attache at U.S. embassy in Paris. Then at University of Nebraska: 1921-23 Associate Professor of Philosophy, 1923-26 Professor of Comparative Philology and Oriental Languages. Then at Columbia University in New York: 1926-35 Professor of Oriental Languages (Jackson’s successor) and 1935-44 Professor of Comparative Linguistics. In 1944 emeritus. Married in 1905 Florence (1877–1942).
Publications: “The Metrics of Bhartṛhari”, JAOS 20:1, 1899, 157-159; “Śivarāma’s Commentary on the Vāsavadattā”, JAOS 24, 1903, 57-63; “Literary studies on the Sanskrit novel”, WZKM 18, 1904, 39-58; “Lexicographical addenda to the St. Petersburg Lexicons from the Vāsavadattā of Subandhu”, JAOS 60, 1906, 355-368.
–“The Indo-Iranian Deity Apam Napāt”, Archiv f. Rel.wiss. 3, 1900, Archiv f. Rel.wiss. 3, 1900, 18-51; “The Double Nature of the Iranian Archangels”, Archiv f. Rel.wiss. 7, 1904, 345-372
– “Zur indogermanischen Syntax von *nāman”, IF 11, 1900, 307-313; “Contributions to Avestan Syntax”, JAOS 21:2, 1901, 112-145 & 22:1, 1901, 145-176; Indo-Iranian Phonology. 18+264 p. N.Y. 1902.
– Translated: Subandhu: Vāsavadattā. 13+214 p. Indo-Ir. Ser. 8. N.Y. 1913; “Viddhaśālabhañjikā of Rājaśekhara”, JAOS 27:1, 1906, 1-71; “Dūtāṅgada of Subhaṭa, a chāyānāṭaka”, JAOS 32, 1912, 58-77; “Bhartṛharinirveda of Harihara”, JAOS 25, 1904, 197-230.
– “The Indian God Dhanvantari”, JAOS 42, 1922, 323-337; “Sur l’inflexion des prétendus thèmes en -l”, BSL 31, 1931, 34-42; “Observations on Middle Indian Morphology”, BSOS 8, 1936, 563-577; “Fifteen Prākrit-Indo-European Etymologies”, JAOS 60, 1940, 361-369.
– “The Indo-European Negative Prefix in N”, Language 1, 1925, 119-129; “The Inflection of the Present Indicative Active in Indo-European”, Language 3, 1927, 71-86; “The ‘Ahurian’ and ‘Daevian’ Vocabularies in the Avesta”, JRAS 1927, 427-441; “The Personal Endings of the Present and Imperfect Active and Middle”, Language 6, 1930, 229-252; “On Indo-European Noun-Declension, Especially of -O- and-Ā-Stems”, Language 8, 1932, 183-199
– “A List of the Divine and Demonic Epithets in the Avesta”, JAOS 46, 1926, 97-153 (cf. JRAS 1927, 427-441); “Yasna LVII: An Essay in Text-Reconstruction”, JAOS 58, 1938, 310-323 (text, transl., notes).
– Foundations of Iranian Religions. 230 p. Bombay 1929.
– Introduction to Semitic Comparative Linguistics. 17+149 p. N.Y. 1935.
– Foundations of Language. 16+530 p. N.Y. 1939.
– “Four Indo-Iranian Etymologies”, Language 25, 1949, 375-378.
– The Narrative of Bhoja. Bhojaprabandha by Ballāla of Benares. 7+109 p. A.O.S. 34. New Haven 1950.
– Brief articles on Indology and Iranian studies (ancient, middle and new Persian), on IE and Celtic languages, etc. (JAOS, AJPh, etc.), on Semitic.
Sources: Who Was Who in Am. 3, 1951-60; *R. A. Forkes, Lex. Gramm. 1996, 365; W.W. Malandra, Encyclop. Iranica 11:2, 2002, 200 (online version with photo); Wikipedia briefly.
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