Robert Burton "RB" Jones (January 31, 1920 – November 23, 2007) was a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

whose research focused on the South East Asian languages, in particular

Karen Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding white woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand * House of Karen, a historic ...

Burmese Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (horse), a ...

and Thai. He was a professor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. Jones studied music as an undergraduate at

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

, particularly focusing on the organ. In 1941, he joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

for

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and studied

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

in the army. After the war he began he resumed his studies, this time at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, graduating 1947. He finished a Ph.D. in Linguistics at Berkeley in 1958 under

Mary Haas Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American indigenous languages, Thai, and historical linguistics. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was el ...

. He travelled on a

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

grant to

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

in 1957–58. Jones taught at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

, the

Foreign Service Institute The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the United States federal government's primary training institution for members of the U.S. foreign service community, preparing American diplomats as well as other professionals to advance U.S. foreign ...

of the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

, and in 1955, started at

. Jones retired from Cornell in 1986.

Publications

*Jones, Robert B. (1953). ''The Burmese writing system''. Washington, DC : American Council of Learned Soc.. *Jones, Robert B. (1961). ''Karen Linguistic Studies: Description, comparison, and texts''. Berkeley: University of California Press. *Jones, Robert B. (1970). "Classifier Constructions in Southeast Asia.". ''Journal of the American Oriental Society.'' 90.1: 1-12 *Jones, Robert B. (1972). “Sketch of Burmese dialects.” M. Estellie Smith (ed.), ''Studies in linguistics in honor or George L. Trager.'' The Hague: Mouton. 413-422. *Jones, Robert B. (1974). Rev. of

John Okell John William Alan Okell OBE (; 1934 – 3 August 2020) was a British linguist notable for his expertise in the field of Burma studies. Life Okell was born in Brighton and was educated at The Queen's College, University of Oxford, where he r ...

, A reference grammar of colloquial Burmese. ''Language'' 50. 1: 205-7. *Jones, Robert B. (1975). Rev. of Roop, An introduction to the Burmese writing system. ''Journal of Asian Studies'' 32. 1: 205-6. *Jones, Robert B. (1975). The question of Karen linguistic affiliation. 8th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Language and Linguistics. *Jones, Robert B. (1976). "Sketch of Burmese dialects." ''Studies in Honor of George L. Trager.'' M. Estellie Smith, ed. The Hague: Mouton. 413-422 *Jones, Robert B. (1976). "Prolegomena to a phonology of Old Burmese". ''Southeast Asian History and Historiography: essays presented to D. G. E. Hall'' C. D. Cowan and O. W. Wolters, eds. Ithaca: Cornell Univ Press. 43-50 *Jones, Robert B. (1986). "Pitch Register Languages." ''Contributions to Sino-Tibetan studies.'' John McCoy, Timothy Light, eds. Leiden: E. J. Brill. *Jones, Robert B. (1988). "Proto-Burmese as a test of reconstruction." ''On language: rhetorica, phonologica, syntactica: a Festschrift for Robert P. Stockwell from his friends and colleagues.'' Caroline Duncan-Rose and Theo Vennemann, eds. London: Routledge. 203-211

External links

Finding list for the Jones papers at Cornell Library

References

Burmese studies scholars 1920 births 2007 deaths Southern Methodist University alumni United States Army personnel of World War II University of California, Berkeley alumni Cornell University faculty American expatriates in Myanmar Georgetown University staff Linguists from the United States {{US-linguist-stub