Walter Simon - Biography

Ernest Julius Walter Simon CBE FBA (10 June 1893, Berlin - 22 February 1981, London) was a sinologist and librarian. He was born in Berlin and lived there, being educated at the University of Berlin, until he fled the Nazis to London in 1934, where he spent all the rest of his life except for brief periods as a visiting professor in various countries, teaching Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London from 1947 to 1960. He made great contributions to historical Chinese phonology and Sino-Tibetan linguistics.

Career

• Higher Library Service, Berlin University Library, 1919-35
• Exchange Librarian, National Library of Peking, 1932-33
• Lecturer in Chinese, University of Berlin, 1926-32; Extraordinary Professor of Chinese, University of Berlin, 1932-34
• Lecturer, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1936; Reader in Chinese, University of London, 1938; Professor of Chinese, University of London, 1947-60, Emeritus Professor, 1960
• Visiting Professor: University of Toronto, 1961-62; Australian National University, Canberra, 1962; Tokyo, Canberra and Melbourne, 1970

Simon was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1961.

Other posts

• Editor, Asia Major, 1964-75
• Honorary Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
• Honorary Vice-President, Royal Asiatic Society, 1976-1981 (Gold Medal, 1977)

Publications on Chinese Linguistics

• Zur Rekonstruktion der altchinesischen Endkonsonanten, 2 Parts, 1928-29
• Tibetisch-chinesische Wortgleiehungen: Ein Versuch, 1930
• Chinese Sentence Series, 3 volumes, 1942-44
• New Official Chinese Latin Script, 1942
• Chinese National Language (Gwoyeu) Reader, 1943 (2nd edn 1954, reprinted 1972)
• 1200 Chinese Basic Characters, 1944 (4th repr. 1975)
• How to Study and Write Chinese Characters, 1944 (3rd reprint 1975)
• Structure Drill through Speech Patterns, I. Structure Drill in Chinese, 1945 (2nd edn 1959, reprinted 1975)
• Beginners' Chinese-English Dictionary, 1947 (4th edn 1975)

Publications on Tibetan Linguistics

• 1941. “Certain Tibetan suffixes and their combinations.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 5:388-89
• 1942. “Tibetan dang, cing, kyin, yin and ‘am”. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 10, 1942. 954-975.
• 1949. “The range of sound alternation in Tibetan word families.” Asia Major (New Series) 1:1-15
• 1956. "Tibetan "so" and Chinese "ya" 'Tooth'" Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 18.3 (1956): 512-513.
• 1957. “Tibetan gseb and cognate words.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 20 (1957): 523-32
• 1962. “Tibetan par, dpar, spar, and cognate words.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 25 (1962): 720-80.
• 1964. “Tibetan Lexicography and Etymological Research.“ Transactions of the Philological Society (1964): 85-107.
• 1966. “Tibetan nyin-rans and tho-rangs.” Asia Major 12, 1966. 179-84.
• 1967. “The Tibetan particle re.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 30 (1967): 117-26.
• 1968. “Tibetan re in its wider context” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 31 (1968): 555-62.
• 1969. “Cognates of Tibetan rnangs-pa (‘entire, complete’).” Academica Sinica: Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 39 (1969): 287-9.
• 1971. “Tibetan ‘fifteen’ and ‘eighteen’” Études Tibétaines: dédiées à la mémoire de Marcelle Lalou. Paris: Libraire d’Amérique et d’Orient, 1971.
• 1977. "Alternation of Final Vowel with Final Dental Nasal or Plosive in Tibetan." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 40.1 (1977): 51-57.
• 1979. “Tibetan stes, stes-te, etc. and some of the Sanskrit correspondences.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 42 (1979): 334-6.
• 1980. "Some Tibetan Etymologies of Semantic Interest." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 43.1 (1980): 132-136.

• Who was Who

External links

• Walter Simon: A scholar-Librarian and his East Asian Collection, National Library of Australia.
• Obituary, by H. L. Shorto, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 45, No. 2. (1982), p. 344, available through JSTOR.