SHAFER, Robert Lloyd (Schafer). 1893 — 1969. U.S. Linguist and Sino-Tibetan scholar. Ph.D. Director of Sino-Tibetan Linguistic Project at U.C. Berkeley. Famous, but rather much criticised for his brave hypotheses.
Publications: “Nahali, a linguistic study in paleoethnography”, HJAS 5, 1940, 346-371; “Linguistics in History”, JAOS 67, 1947, 296-305; other articles.
– “Études sur l’Austroasian”, BSL 48, 1952, 111-158; Studies in Austroasian II. 69 p. StOr 30:5. Helsinki 1965.
– Ethnography of ancient India. 175 p. Wb. 1954.
– Bibliography of Sino-Tibetan languages. 11+211 p. Wb. 1957.
– Introduction to Sino-Tibetan. 1-4. 6+408 p. Wb. 1966-70, 2nd ed.541 p. Wb. 1974.
– Also wrote on American Indian languages.
Sources: P.K. Benedict, “Where it all began: memories of R.S. and the ‘Sino-Tibetan Linguistic Project’ Berkeley 1939-40”, Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 2, 1975, 81-91 (http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/benedict1975where.pdf) contains some personal memories, but not much information about this elusive figure.
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