MANSION, Joseph. Ghent 9.1.1877 — Liège 8.11.1937. Belgian Linguist. Professor in Liège. Son of the mathematician Paul Mansion (1844–1919) and Marie-Cécile Belpaire. After school in Ghent he studied in 1894-99 classical philology and law at Université de Gand where he also learned Sanskrit under La Vallée Poussin. Ph.D. 1899 in classical philology, then further studies at Leipzig, Bonn, Berlin and Cambridge. From 1904 chargé de cours at Université de Liège, from 1910 eo. and from 1919 ord. Professor there. He taught comparative Germanic and history of German and English languages from 1904, Gothic from 1905, Flemish from 1919 and Sanskrit in 1908-29 (in this succeeded by his student Fohalle). From 1911 member, from 1924 director of the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature. He was known as a scholar of Greek, Sanskrit, Indo-European and especially of Germanic. His Indological work concentrates on a few years around 1930. Married Marie de Brouwer (1881–1944), father of Suzanne M. (1916–1981), a scholar of Aristotle, and another daughter.
Publications: Diss. publ. Les Gutturales grecques. 6+328 p. Ghent & P. 1904; other works on IE (e.g. “Le pays d’origine des Indo-Européens”, Revue des questions scientifiques 3:19, 1911, 215-247 and “La finale indo-européenne”, Muséon 14, 1913, 229-255), also on Germanic, Flemish etc.
– Esquisse d’une histoire de la langue sanscrite. 198 p. P. 1931.
– “Quelques passages de Patañjali au point de vue de l’histoire du sanscrit”, Donum natal. Schrijnen 1929, 381-384; “Le sanskrit védique, langue morte”, Mél. de philol. orientale. Liège 1932, 135-150; “L’intellectualité hindoue”, Xaveriana 9:98, 1932, 33-68.
Sources: R. Fohalle, Revue belge de philol. et d’hist. 18, 1939, 361-380 (concentrating on his work and omitting life and career); A. Van Loey, Biogr. nat. Belg. 30 (Suppl. 2), 1959, 536-540; *bibliography upto 1934, Liber memorialis, L’Université de Liège. 1. Liège 1936, 504-507; Wikipedia with photo (also French version).
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