Alan Stewart Duthie (19 May 1938 – 6 July 2013) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

who settled and worked in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

all his adult life. He was a pioneer in linguistics at the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in the country. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the British colony of the Gold Coast ...

Legon Legon , a suburb of the Ghanaian city Accra, is situated about north-east of the city center in the Ayawaso West Municipal District, a district in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Legon is home to the main campus of the University of Ghana. ...

, for 49 years.

Early life and education

Alan Duthie was raised in Downfield area of

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. His secondary school education at the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private sc ...

. He obtained a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA) in History of

Greek Language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...

, non-dramatic Greek Poetry, Hebrew and

Moral Philosophy Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied et ...

at the University of St. Andrews between 1956 and 1960. He then went on to the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

where he completed a postgraduate Diploma in General Linguistics. He continued his postgraduate studies at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

where he graduated in 1964 with a Ph. D. in Linguistics. While working at the University of Ghana, he was an external student of the

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

, obtaining a degree in

Divinity Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a single ...

Academic career

Alan Duthie joined the Phonetics Unit in the Department of English at the University of Ghana, Legon in November 1964. He became part of the team of Linguists who developed the unit into the Department of Linguistics. The others were Mrs McCallien, Lindsay Criper, along with a Ghanaian, Lawrence Boadi. Helmut Truteneau and another Ghanaian, Florence Dolphyne joined later. Duthie was the first lecturer to be appointed directly to the department in 1964. He was key in building up the department to run both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. During the economic depression in the early 1980s, he and Florence Dolphyne were instrumental in maintaining the department. He had two spells as the head of the Linguistics Department. The first was between 1986 and 1989 and then also from 1991 to 1993. The courses he taught include

Phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

Sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...

English Phonology English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of Eng ...

, English Syntax and

Semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

, Theory of Translation, Seminar in Semantics, and Linguistics of Ewe. He also has many publications to his name. At the time of his death, he was reputed to have taught and mentored many who later became academic members of staff of the Department of Linguistics with the exception of the younger ones. He was at his office on the day before his death.

Felix Ameka Felix Ameka (born 1957) is a linguist working on the intersection of grammar, meaning and culture. His empirical specialisation is on West-African languages. He is currently professor of Ethnolinguistic Diversity and Vitality at Leiden Universit ...

, a linguist who specialises in West African languages is one of his former students at the University of Ghana.

Religious activities

Duthie taught Bible Translation,

New Testament Greek The New Testament was written in a form of Koine Greek, which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean from the conquests of Alexander the Great (335–323 BC) until the evolution of Byzantine Greek (c. 600). Hellenistic Judaism The ...

and Old Testament Hebrew at the Maranatha Bible College at Sowutuom in Accra. He was involved in organising workshops of the

Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation The Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) is an organisation involved in literacy, education and development projects in minority language communities in Ghana, as well as Bible translation work. History GILLBT gre ...

. He was also one of the co-founders of the Legon Interdenominational Church. He has been the editor of the ''Daily Guide'', which is the daily Bible reading notes published by the

Scripture Union Scripture Union (SU) is an international, interdenominational, evangelical Christian organisation. It was founded in 1867, and works in partnership with individuals and churches across the world. The organisation's stated aim is to use the Bibl ...

in Ghana.

Other work

Alan Duthie served as an examiner for the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

in Ghana.

Family

Alan was the only child of Stewart Duthie and Evelyn Mary Greig. His childhood home was in the Downfield area of Dundee. He settled in Ghana and eventually married a

ian lady, Matilda in 1993. They had one son, David. He lived in Ghana all his working life but regularly returned to his childhood home.

Death

He fell ill on 5 July 2013 following a stomach ailment and was admitted to the Legon Hospital where he died the next day.

Honours

*''Alan S. Duthie Graduate Wing'' - This wing on the first floor of the De Graft Hanson Building is for the use of postgraduate linguistics students of the Department of Linugistics at the University of Ghana.

Publications

* * * * * * * (''first published in 1988 by KPI Limited in association with the International African Institute'')

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duthie, Alan Stewart 1938 births 2013 deaths Linguists from Scotland Linguists from Ghana Academic staff of the University of Ghana People educated at the High School of Dundee Alumni of the University of St Andrews Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Manchester Ghanaian people of Scottish descent Deaths from digestive disease