SYKES, Percy Molesworth. Brompton, Kent 28.2.1867 — London 11.6.1945. Sir. British Colonial Officer and Diplomat. Brigadier-General. Son of Army chaplain Rev. William Sykes and Mary Molesworth, educated at Rugby, military education at Sandhurst. From 1888 served in 2nd Dragoon Guards in India, 1895 Lieutenant, 1897 Captain. In 1892 secret mission…
THESLEFF, Arthur. Viipuri (now Vyborg in Russia) 5.3.1871 — Stockholm 17.12.1920. Finnish Botanist (Mycologist) and Gipsy Scholar. Son of Colonel Fredrik Vilhelm Th. and Olga Maria Thesleff. From 1890 studied botany at Helsinki. In the late 1890s fieldwork among gipsies in Finland, Sweden, Russia, Hungary and Poland. In 1906 he moved…
SMART, Bath Charles. 1838 — 1887. British Physician interested in Gipsy Language. M.D. Worked in Manchester. Married, widower 1867. Publications: The Dialect of the English Gypsies. 1863, 2nd rev. & enl. ed. with H. T. Crofton. 23+302 p. L. 1875. Sources: Wikisource, no further information found.
ROTHKIRCH-PANTHEN, Hugo Bernhard Sigismund von. Breslau 22.4.1812 — Breslau 16.3.1868. German Astronomer, also interested in Linguistics. Of Silesian nobility. After Ritterakademie Liegnitz and Elisabet-Gymnasium in Breslau studies at Breslau. Began with law, but also took languages and mathematics and eventually astronomy. Worked as calculator in Breslau observatory. Publications: “Über Ursprung und Sprache der…
PALMER, Edward Henry. Cambridge 7.8.1840 — Sinai Peninsula 11.8.1882. British Oriental Scholar and Asian traveller. Son of William Henry P., a private schoolmaster, lost early his father. After school in Cambridge he was sent to London as a clerk. After a serious attack of tuberculosis he returned home and recovering…
MACALISTER, Robert Alexander Stewart .Rathmines, Dublin 8.7.1870 — Cambridge 26.4.1950. Irish Archeologist. Professor in Dublin. Son of Alexander M., anatomist and Egyptologist, and Elizabeth Stewart. His mother and paternal grandfather came from Scotland. Father was Professor at Trinity College and from 1883 at Cambridge, thus he grew up in Cambridge, educated at Rathmines…
LITTMANN, Ludwig Richard Enno. Oldenburg 16.9.1875 — Tübingen 4.5.1958. German Semitic and Ethiopian scholar. Professor in Tübingen. Son of Gustav Adolph L. and Sophie Jacoby. After gymnasium in Oldenburg from 1894 studies of theology and languages at Berlin, Greifswald and Halle. Ph.D. 1898 Halle. In 1899-1904 and 1904 participated in American…
LELAND, Charles Godfrey. Philadelphia, PA 15.8.1824 — Florence 20.3.1903. U.S. Journalist and Amateur Folklorist. Son of merchant Charles L. Studies at Princeton, then at Heidelberg, Munich and Paris (he was there during the 1848 revolution). Back home passed in the bar, but never practised as lawyer. Instead he turned to…
KOHOUT, Václav. Kolín 1802? — Jasov 6.11.1867. Czech Catholic Theologian. Premonstratensian Vicar in Poprad (Slovakia) in 1849-65. Publications: Manuscript works Tentamen condiscendae lingue zingaricae and Exercitatio lingo zingaricae (1821) kept in Premonstratensian library in Jasov. Sources: Kdo Byl Kdo: Čeští a slovenští orientalisté, afrikanisté a iberoamerikanisté, referring to *Slovenský biografický slovník 3, 1989, 133; Studia Bibliographica Posoniensia 1/2009, 182 (English…
KLICH, Edward. Skalat (now in Ukraina) 2.2.1878 — Poznań 1.12.1939. Polish Linguist, Specialist of Slavic and Gipsy Languages. Student of Rozwadowski at Cracow. From 1929 Professor at Poznań. Killed by Nazis. Publications: Wrote on Slavic linguistics (Polish and Byelorussian). – “Wpływy języka polskiego na dialekty Cyganów polskich”, Prace polonist. ofiar. prof. Janowi…