Gabriel Manessy (28 March 1923 – 17 June 1996) was a French linguist who worked on

Niger–Congo languages Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups ...

, especially the

Gur languages The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur or Mabia, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. They are spoken in the Sahelian and savanna regions of West Africa, namely: in most areas of Burkina Faso, and in south-central Mali, northeastern Ivor ...

. Manessy is known for his historical-comparative work on the

. He wrote extensively on the Gurunsi, Oti–Volta, and Senufo languages.Nicolaï, Robert (2001).
Hommage à Gabriel Manessy
''Leçons d’Afrique : Filiations, ruptures et reconstitutions des langues'', 7-9. Peeters.

Career

Manessy was born on 28 March 1923. After studying literature, his interest shifted to ethnology. After working briefly at the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

, he taught linguistics at the Faculty of Letters of Dakar and became the first Director of the Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar (CLAD). He was appointed Professor in 1964. He supervised Masters students in African Linguistics, first at Dakar, then at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

. From 1969 to 1988, he taught at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at the

University of Nice A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

. He retired in 1988. Manessy died on 17 June 1996 at the age of 73.

References

External links

Publications on Persée
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manessy, Gabriel 1923 births 1996 deaths Linguists of Niger–Congo languages 20th-century French linguists