Rhoda Sutherland (1907 – 6 January 1989) was an academic who studied the French language and specialised in

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

Life

Rhoda Clarke was born in Atherstone in 1907 and attended Nuneaton School for Girls. In 1929 she was Lecturer and in 1935 Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford University. She studied the French language and was quoted for her views on the history of the language. Sutherland lectured on

Philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

which was a subject she defended against those who would like to have seen its scope subsumed into

Literary Studies A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

. The American Chinese studies academic

Richard Baum Richard Dennis Baum (; July 8, 1940 – December 14, 2012) was an American China watcher, professor emeritus of political science at UCLA, and former director emeritus of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, noted for his many academic works on C ...

credited Sutherland with inspiring him to specialise in linguistics. In 1938 she married the Oxford librarian

Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland (17 July 1935 – 20 June 2024) was a Canadian actor. With a career spanning six decades, he received List of awards and nominations received by Donald Sutherland, numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award ...

. She retired in 1971 and died in 1989.

Work

* (with Will Moore and

Enid Starkie Enid Mary Starkie CBE (18 August 1897 – 21 April 1970), was an Irish literary critic, known for her biographical works on French poets. She was a Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, and Lecturer and then Reader in the University. Early ...

) The French Mind. Studies in honour of Gustave Rudler, Oxford 1952The French Mind
Studies in honour of Gustave Rudler, Oxford 1952 * The language of the troubadours, in: French Studies 10, 1956, S. 199-215 * The love meditation in courtly literature, in: Studies in medieval French. Presented to Alfred Ewert in honour of his seventieth birthday, Oxford 1961, S. 165-193

References

1907 births 1989 deaths People from Atherstone British women linguists Fellows of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford 20th-century British linguists {{Academic-stub