James Noel Adams (24 September 1943 – 11 October 2021) was an Australian specialist in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

Romance Philology Romance studies or Romance philology (; ; ; ; ; ; ) is an academic discipline that covers the study of the languages, literatures, and cultures of areas that speak Romance languages. Romance studies departments usually include the study of Spa ...

Life and career

Adams attended the North Sydney Boys' High School and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, where he graduated with

first class honours 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 ...

and was awarded the

University Medal A University Medal is one of several types of award conferred by university, universities upon outstanding students or members of staff. The usage and status of university medals differ between countries and between universities. As award on grad ...

for Latin in the year 1964. From 1967 to 1970 he was a Commonwealth Scholar at

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The l ...

, where he also completed his doctorate in 1970. He later held positions at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

(Rouse Research Fellow in Classics 1970–1972); 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 ...

(1972–1995, most recently as professor of Latin); at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

(visiting senior research fellow 1994–1995); and at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

(Professor of Latin 1995–1997). From 1998 to 2010 he was a senior research fellow and subsequently emeritus fellow at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

. He was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA) in 1992 and was awarded the British Academy's

Kenyon Medal The Kenyon Medal is awarded every two years by the British Academy 'in recognition of work in the field of classical studies and archaeology'. The medal was endowed by Sir Frederic Kenyon and was first awarded in 1957. List of recipients SourceB ...

for

Classical Studies 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 and Roman literature and their original languages ...

in 2009. He was an honorary Fellow of

. In 2002 he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australi ...

(Hon FAHA), and in 2007 as a

Member of the Academia Europaea Membership of the Academia Europaea (MAE) is an award conferred by the Academia Europaea to individuals that have demonstrated "sustained academic excellence". Membership is by invitation only by existing MAE and judged during a peer review selecti ...

(MAE). In 2010 a volume of essays titled ''Colloquial and Literary Latin'' was published in his honour. In 1995 he became chairman of the British Academy's project, the ''

Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources The ''Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources'' ("DMLBS") is a lexicon of Medieval Latin published by the British Academy. The dictionary is not founded upon any earlier dictionary, but derives from original research. After decades of ...

'', a post he held until his retirement in 2010. The dictionary was completed in 2013, and Fascicule XIV (2011) was dedicated to him. He was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2015 Birthday Honours The 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours were awarded as ...

for services to Latin scholarship. Adams died on 11 October 2021, at the age of 78.

Research

Adams' publications largely focus on vernacular, non-literary, technical, and regional varieties of the Latin language. His monograph titled ''The Latin Sexual Vocabulary'' (1982) became an indispensable standard reference and remained in print for over thirty years. He also published ''Bilingualism and the Latin Language'' (2003), ''The Regional Diversification of Latin'' (2007) and ''Social Variation and the Latin Language'' (2013), a trilogy which explores linguistic variation in Latin. The third volume of this trilogy won the 2013 PROSE award in Language & Linguistics of the Association of American Publishers, Inc. He also studied ancient

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...

and newly uncovered non-literary Latin texts.

Works

* ''The Text and Language of a Vulgar Latin Chronicle. (Anonymus Valesianus II)'' (= ''Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies''. Supplement 36). University of London, Institute of Classical Studies, London 1976, . * ''The Vulgar Latin of the Letters of Claudius Terentianus (P. Mich. VIII. 467-72)'' (= ''Publications of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Manchester''. Band 23). Manchester University Press, Manchester 1977, . * ''The Latin Sexual Vocabulary''. Duckworth, London 1982, Johns Hopkins University Press 1990, . * ''Wackernagel’s Law and the Placement of the Copula esse in Classical Latin'' (= ''Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society''. Supplement 18). Cambridge Philological Society, Cambridge 1994, . * ''Pelagonius and Latin Veterinary Terminology in the Roman Empire'' (= ''Studies in ancient medicine''. Band 11). Brill, Leiden 1995, . * ''Bilingualism and the Latin Language''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, . * ''The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC – AD 600''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007, . * ''Social Variation and the Latin Language''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2013, . * ''An Anthology of Informal Latin, 200 BC – AD 900''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, . * ''Early and Late Latin. Continuity or Change?'' (co-edited with

Nigel Vincent Nigel Vincent (born 24 September 1947) is a British linguist. He is Professor Emeritus of General and Romance Linguistics at the University of Manchester. He is best known for his work on morphology, syntax, and historical linguistics, with parti ...

). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, . * ''Asyndeton and its Interpretation in Latin Literature''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2021, .

References

External links

Dr James Adams , All Souls College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, James Noel 1943 births 2021 deaths Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Fellows of the British Academy Members of Academia Europaea Romance philologists Australian philologists Australian Latinists People educated at North Sydney Boys High School Australian emigrants to England University of Sydney alumni