EMENEAU, Murray Barnson. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia 28.2.1904 — Berkeley, CA 29.8.2005. Canadian Indologist and Anthropologist in the U.S.A. U.S. citizen 1941. Professor in Berkeley. Son of Archibald Emeneau (1871–1912) and Ada Helena Barnson (1875–1961). Father’s early death left the family in poor conditions, but a scholarship helped him to college. Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax (B.A. 1923) and Oxford (B.A. 1926 Balliol College; in classical languages and Sanskrit), then post-graduate studies at Yale under Edgerton and Sturtevant. Ph.D. 1931 Yale. Then further studies of linguistics and anthropology under Edward Sapir (learning fieldwork methods), assisted Edgerton in the edition of the Vedic Variants. He also taught at Yale, Latin in 1926-31, and anthropology in 1938-39. Following Sapir’s suggestion he conducted in 1935-38 fieldwork among South Indian tribals (Toda and Kota, more briefly also among Badaga, Koḍagu, and Kolami). Then at University of California in Berkeley (successor of A. Ryder): from 1940 Assistant Professor of Sanskrit and General Linguistics, 1943 Associate Professor and from 1946 full Professor. In 1953-58 chairman of the new Department of Linguistics, in 1959-62 that of Classics. Retired as emeritus in 1971. From 1949 president of the Linguistic Society of America. Hon.dr. 1968 Chicago, 1987 Hyderabad, 1999 Darbhanga, also LL.D. 1970 Dalhousie. Married 1940 Katharine (Kitty) Fitch (1903–1987). Lived to very advanced age and died in sleep in his home.
Emeneau is mainly known as a Dravidian scholar and anthropologist, but he was also an able Sanskritist. Enormous fieldwork material employed him long time, and afterwards he studied, among other things, Brahui. He organized the survey of Californian Indian languages. During the war he also taught Vietnamese. He created the idea of India as a linguistic area. Beside linguistics he was interested in folklore motifs. In teaching he dealt, beside Sanskrit and Dravidian, also with Vedic and Indo-European. He had many Indian students, e.g. Bh. Krishnamurti and R. K. Sharma, among other students e.g. Van Nooten. He lived more than 100 years and still worked almost to the end. He never used computer.
Publications: According to Krishnamurti 2005 28 books, 148 research papes, 99 reviews and 11 miscellaneous items.
– Diss. 1931 publ. as Jambhāladatta’s Version of the Vetālapañcaviṁśati. A critical Sanskrit text with an Introduction and English Translation. 23+155 p. A.O.S. 4. New Haven 1934.
– With M. Bloomfield (†) and Fr. Edgerton: Vedic Variants. Vol. 3. 1934.
– “Kṣemendra as kavi”, JAOS 53, 1933, 124-143; “An interpolation in some Manuscripts of the Bṛhatkathāmañjarī”, JRAS 1933, 821-830; “A Story of Vikrama’s Birth and Accession”, JAOS 55, 1935, 59-88; “The Nasal Phonemes of Sanskrit”, Language 22, 1946, 86-93; “Notes on Śrīharṣa’s Naiṣadhacarita”, W. Popper Vol. 1951, 87-102.
– A Union list of Printed Indian Texts and Translations in American Libraries. 15+540 p. A.O.S. 7. New Haven 1935.
– “The Vowels of the Badaga Language”, Language 15, 1939, 43-47; “The Dravidian Verbs ‘Come’ and ‘Give’”, Language 21, 1945, 184-213; “Dravidian Kinship Terms”, Language 29, 1953, 339-353.
– “Studies in the folk-tales of India 1-3”, JAOS 63, 1943, 158-168, Journal of American Folkore 56, 1943, 272-288 & JAOS 67, 1947, 1-13.
– Kota Texts. 1-4. 8+390, 4+374 p. Univ. Calif. Publ. in Linguistics 2-3. Berkeley & L.A. 1944-46.
– With others: A Course in Annamese. 3+243 p. Berkeley 1944; An Annamese Reader. 377 p. Berkeley 1944; Annamese-English Dictionary. 3+279 p. Berkeley 1945.
– “The strangling figs in Sanskrit literature”, Univ. of Calif. Publications in Classical Philology 13, 1949, 545-570.
– Studies in Vietnamese (Annamese) Grammar. 10+235 p. Univ. of California Public. in Linguistics 8. Berkeley & L.A. 1951.
– With Van Nooten: Sanskrit Sandhi and Exercises. Berkeley 1952, rev. 2nd ed. 3+28 p. B. 1968.
– Kolami, a Dravidian Language. 16+302 p. Univ. of California Public. in Linguistics 12. Berkeley & L.A. 1955, 2nd ed. Annamalainagar 1961
.– “India as a Linguistic Area”, Language 32, 1956, 3-16; “Onomatopoetics in the Indian Linguistic Area”, Language 45, 1969, 274-299; “The Indian Linguistic Area Revisited”, IJDL 3, 1974, 92-134.
– “Toda, a Dravidian Language”, TrPhSoc 1957, 15-66; Brahui and Dravidian comparative Grammar. 10+91 p. Univ. of California Public. in Linguistics 27. Berkeley & L.A. 1962; “The South Dravidian Languages”, JAOS 87, 1967, 365-413.
– With T. Burrow: Dravidian Etymological Dictionary. 29+609 p. Oxford 1961 (D.E.D.); Supplement. 11+185 p. Oxford 1962; further supplement, JAOS 92, 1972, 397-418 & 475-491; 2nd ed. 41+853 p. Oxford 1984; Dravidian Borrowings from Indo-Aryan. 10+121 p. Univ. of California Public. in Linguistics 26. Berkeley & L.A. 1962; “Dravidian Etymological Notes”, JAOS 92, 1972, 397-418, 475-491.
– Kālidāsa, Abhijñānaśakuntalā. Translated from the Bengali Recension. 12+115 p. Berkeley & L.A. 1962.
– India and historical grammar. 6+77 p. Annamalai Univ. Dept. of Ling. Publ. 5. Annamalainagar 1965.
– “Style and Meaning in an Oral Literature”, Language 42, 1966, 323-345.
– Dravidian comparative phonology: a sketch. 7+129 p. Annamalai Univ. Dept. of Ling. Publ. 22. Annamalainagar 1970.
– Toda Songs. 48+1004 p. Oxford 1971.
– Ritual structure and language structure of the Todas. 103 p. Tr. Phil. Soc. N.S. 64:6. Philadelphia 1974.
– Toda grammar and texts. 13+426 p. Mem. of Am. Philos. Soc. 155. Philadelphia 1984.
– A great number of articles on Dravidology, Sanskrit philology, linguistics and anthropology; Dravidian Linguistics, Ethnology and Folktales: Collected Papers. Selected and introduced by Anwar S. Dil. 7+487 p. Annamalai Univ. Dept. of Ling. Publ. 8. Annamalainagar 1967; Language and Linguistic Area: Essays by M.B.E. Selected and introduced by Anwar S. Dil. 14+371 p. Stanford 1980; Sanskrit studies of M.B.E.: selected papers. Edited by B. A. Van Nooten. 9+213 p. Berkeley 1988; Dravidian Studies: Selected Papers. Introduction by Bh. Krishnamurti. 31+464 p. Delhi 1994.
Sources: *H.S. Ananthanarayana, IJDL 34, 2005, 1-18, and further contributions of others in the same vol. (229-255 bibliography by B. Ramakrishna Reddy & K. Nagamma Reddy); *W. Bright, Language 82, 2006, 411-422; Bh. Krishnamurti (with bibliography) in M. B. Emeneau Ṣaṣṭipūrti Volume. 1968, xv-xxvii, also a photo; Bh. Krishnamurti (with bibliography), JAOS 125, 2005, 481-497; Bh. Krishnamurti & R. K. Sharma, Newsl. IASS 8, 2006, 47-50; W. Bright, Language 82, 2006, 411-422; parents in WikiTree; Wikipedia with photo; personal meeting 1984.
*M.B. Emeneau, “A Nova Scotian becomes a linguistic Indologist”, Konrad Koerner (ed.). First person singular. 2. Autobiographies by North American scholars in the linguistic sciences. Studies in the Histary of Linguistic Sciences 61.Amsterdam 1991, 83-101.
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