Charles Otto Blagden (6September 186425August 1949) was an English Orientalist and

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 ...

who specialised in the Malay,

Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * A ...

and

Pyu Pyu, also spelled Phyu or Phyuu, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. is a town in Taungoo District, Bago Region in Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (th ...

languages. He is particularly known for his studies of Burmese epigraphic inscriptions in the

and Pyu scripts.

Biography

Blagden was educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

in London, after which he obtained a scholarship to Corpus Christi College,

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

where he read

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

, graduating with a

first class degree The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

. In 1888 Blagden was appointed to the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...

civil service in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

, where he held a number of administrative and judicial posts in

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

and

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

In 1897 he returned to England due to ill health, and the following year he became a Holt Scholar of

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

in London. In 1897 he was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

, and for the next seventeen years he practiced law, co-authoring a number of legal works, whilst continuing to publish academic articles on Malay, Mon and Pyu. In 1916 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 ...

(later School of Oriental and African Studies) was founded as a constituent college of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, in order to promote the teaching of Asian languages and to train colonial officials for the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

, admitting its first students in January 1917. Blagden had been acting as an examiner in Malay for the University of London since 1910, and in 1917 he was appointed as

Lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

in Malay at the School of Oriental Studies. He was later promoted to Reader and then

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

, before retiring in 1935. Blagden also cooperated with

Evangeline Edwards Evangeline Dora Edwards, known as Eve D. Edwards (13 August 1888 – 29 September 1957) taught Chinese language and Chinese literature at SOAS, University of London from 1921 to 1955, and was head of the Department of the Far East from 1937 to 1 ...

on studies of Chinese vocabularies of

Malay (1931) and

Cham Cham or CHAM may refer to: Ethnicities and languages *Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia **Cham language, the language of the Cham people ***Cham script *** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script * Cham Albani ...

(1939). Blagden acted as vice-president of the

Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society, was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encourag ...

during 1923–1933 and 1935–1938, and then honorary vice-president from 1938 until his death in 1949. He was also vice-president of the Royal Anthropological Society. In the 1950s

Gordon Luce Gordon Hannington Luce (20 January 1889 – 3 May 1979) was a colonial scholar in Burma. His outstanding library containing books, manuscripts, maps and photographs – The Luce Collection – was acquired by the National Library of Australia ...

revealed plans to "complete and publish Blagden’s long-planned grammar and etymological dictionary of Old Mon", plans which, despite Luce's "tremendous effort", were not to be realised.Gordon Luce: Mon-Khmer and Sino-Tibetan Papers
sealang.net. Retrieved 1 September 2023.

Works

* 1898. "The medieval chronology of Malacca". * 1902. "A Malayan element in some of the languages of Southern Indo-China". In ''Journal of the Straits Branch, Royal Asian Society'' no. 38. * 1906. With

Walter William Skeat Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon. The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in th ...

. ''Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula''. London, Macmillan and Co. * 1906. "Siam and the Malay Peninsula". In ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society''. * 1909. "Notes on Malay history". In ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society''. * 1910. "Quelques notions sur la phonétique du Talain et son évolution historique". In ''Journal asiatique''. * 1912. "Notes on Talaing epigraphy". * 1914. "The Pyu inscriptions". In ''Epigraphica Indica'' vol. 12 no. 16: 127–137. * 1917. With Richard Winstedt. ''A Malay Reader''. Oxford : Clarendon Press. * 1920. ''Môn Inscriptions''. Rangoon: Government Printery and Stationery. * 1928. "The inscriptions of the Kalyāṇīsīmā, Pegu". In ''Epigraphia Birmanica''. * 1960. ''English-Malay phrase-book''. Singapore; Malays Publishing House. Further works listed by sealang.ne
here

References

External links

*
Charles Otto Blagden collections
at

SOAS, University of London The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public university, public research university in London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blagden, Charles Otto 1864 births 1949 deaths Academics of SOAS University of London Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford English orientalists Linguists from England People educated at Dulwich College Linguists of Pyu (Sino-Tibetan)