David Neil MacKenzie FBA (8 April 1926 – 13 October 2001) was a scholar of

Iranian languages The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian langu ...

Biography

Neil MacKenzie (he never used his given first name to be distinguished with his namesake father, David), by Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst was born in London in 1926 and attended a succession of schools in Southern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. In 1943, aged 17, he enlisted in the British Army. In 1945 and 1946 he served as a soldier on the North-West Frontier Province of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, where he learned

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

. Thus acquainted with

, he acquired a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

New Persian New Persian (), also known as Modern Persian () is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian (8th ...

and a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in Old- and

Middle Persian Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg ( Inscriptional Pahlavi script: , Manichaean script: , Avestan script: ) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasania ...

at the

School of Oriental and African 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 ...

(SOAS) 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 ...

. His

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

dissertation, ''Kurdish Dialect Studies'' (1957, published 1961–1962), established his reputation as an Iranist and linguist. At SOAS, MacKenzie was appointed Lecturer in Kurdish in 1955, a position that was extended to include all Iranian languages in 1961. He was promoted to Reader in 1965, a post he held until 1975 when he received an appointment as Chair of Oriental Philology at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

in Germany. MacKenzie retired from that position in 1994 and settled in Bangor,

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

. Upon his return to Britain, MacKenzie was elected as a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

. David Neil MacKenzie died on 13 October 2001 in Bangor, aged 75. He was survived by three sons and one daughter.

Academic achievements

Even though MacKenzie was an acknowledged authority on Kurdish and medieval Khwarezmian, he contributed significantly to the study of other Iranian languages, such as

, Sogdian and

. MacKenzie's contribution to Pashto, Gorani and Kurdish, just to name a few, is the reason for a "former colleague's" description of "poor MacKenzie" as "the man who knows all the dialects and none of the languages." His ''Concise Pahlavi Dictionary'' (1971) was not only one of his most important works, but remains the authoritative lexicographic reference on the language of the 9th-12th century

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...

texts. His Khwarezmian dictionary remained unfinished at the time of his death. In his obituary, MacKenzie is noted to have been "a polyglot whose linguistic knowledge was remarkable in both range and depth. Generally recognised as the world's leading authority on modern Kurdish and medieval Khwarezmian, he also made distinguished contributions to the study of many other Iranian languages, including Pashto, Pahlavi and Sogdian, at the same time displaying enviable competence in non-Iranian languages such as Arabic and Chinese."

Bibliography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackenzie, David Neil 1926 births 2001 deaths British Army personnel of World War II Iranologists Linguists of Kurdish Kurdish language Alumni of SOAS University of London Academics of SOAS University of London Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Linguists of Iranian languages Fellows of the British Academy Linguists of Persian 20th-century British lexicographers

Biography

Academic achievements

See also

Bibliography