Pierre Alexandre (19221994) was a French anthropologist and linguist.

Biography

Born Pierre Hippolyte Henri Charles Alexandre in

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

, he spent his childhood in mainland France. Alexandre studied at the

Lycée Carnot The Lycée Carnot () is a public secondary and higher education school at 145 Boulevard Malesherbes in the 17th arrondissement, Paris, France. The Lycée Carnot was founded in 1869, first bearing the name of École Monge and then renamed in 1 ...

in Paris. In 1943, he qualified for entry into the

École nationale de la France d'Outre-Mer The Colonial School (, also known colloquially as ) was a French public higher education institution or Grandes écoles, grande école, created in Paris in 1889 to provide training for public servants and administrators of the French colonial emp ...

. He was a colonial administrator in

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

and

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

. After the colonies gained independence, he returned to Paris, where he became lecturer at

INALCO Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (; ), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French Grand Etablissement with a specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. Its coverage spans languages of Central Europ ...

and taught

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 ...

.Denise Paulme
''Cahiers d'études africaines, Vol. 34, N° 136, 1994''
pp. 533-535

References

External links

In Memoriam
1922 births 1994 deaths French Africanists 20th-century French anthropologists 20th-century French linguists French people of colonial Algeria {{Africanist-stub