Cape Colony
The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...
-born linguist specializing in Bantu languages.p. 1. Bryan, Margaret. 1981. Professor A. N. Tucker (1904–1980). In ''Proceedings of the First Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Leiden, September 8–10, 1980,'' Thilo C. Schadeberg and M.
Lionel Bender
Marvin Lionel Bender (August 18, 1934 – February 19, 2008) was an American linguist.
Life
Bender was born August 18, 1934, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He travelled throughout the world, particularly in Northeast Africa, and was an accompli ...
, eds., pp. 1, 2. Dordrecht, Holland: Foris Publications. He earned his MA degree at the
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa.
Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...
. He did some study of
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
in southern Africa and also made a trip to Sudan to study languages there. He worked as Linguistic Expert of non-Arabic languages for the Sudan Government from 1929 to 1931. He later moved to England in 1931. In London, Tucker studied under
Alice Werner
Alice Werner CBE (26 June 1859 - 9 June 1935) was a writer, poet and teacher of the Bantu languages, Bantu languages.Daniel Jones, earning his Ph.D. at
University College London
University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
. Later he studied for a short time under
Carl Meinhof
Carl Friedrich Michael Meinhof (23 July 1857 – 11 February 1944) was a German linguist and one of the first linguists to study African languages.
Early years and career
Meinhof was born in Barzwitz near Rügenwalde in the Province of Po ...
in Hamburg.
He was hired to teach at the
School of Oriental Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...
, being named a Professor of East African Languages in 1951. During his 39 years teaching there, "a number of students passed through his hands; many of them were later to become experts in various languages. But it was for his research, and his publications resulting therefrom, that he will be chiefly remembered."
Tucker studied a number of African languages, including languages known as Dinka, Ganda, Kikuyu, Luo (Kenya and Tanzania), Masai, Lamba, Shona, Sukuma, Ntomba, Nyor, and comparative Eastern Sudanic languages. Tucker is known primarily for his two books published with Margaret Bryan: ''The Non-Bantu Languages of Northeastern Africa'' (1956) and, a decade later, ''Linguistic Analyses: The Non-Bantu Languages of North-Eastern Africa.'' According to
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...
, this monumental volume has been cited more than 460 times by other scholars.
Pitt Rivers Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed ...