Arthur Capell | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1902-03-18)18 March 1902 Newtown, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 10 August 1986(1986-08-10) (aged 84) Gordon, New South Wales, Australia |
| Academic background | |
| Education | |
| Thesis | The Linguistic Position of South Eastern Papua (1938) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Linguist |
| Main interests | Australian languages,Austronesian languages,Papuan languages |
Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986)[1] was an Australianlinguist, who made major contributions to the study ofAustralian languages,Austronesian languages andPapuan languages.[2]
Capell was born inNewtown, New South Wales in 1902, the only child of Sarah Ann (née Scott) and her husband, Henry Capell.[3] He attendedNorth Sydney Boys' High School.[3]
Capell graduated from theSydney Teachers' College in Modern Languages in 1922 and theUniversity of Sydney in the same year as the University medallist in Classics.[4] He taught in high schools for three years atCanterbury Boys' Intermediate High andTamworth High School.[3] He was then ordained deacon in 1925 and priest in 1926 in theChurch of England in Australia. He worked inNewcastle for a decade, as Curate, St Peter's,Hamilton (1926–1928); Priest-in-Charge, All Saints,Belmont (1928–1929); as a teacher at Broughton School for Boys in Newcastle (1929–1932), where he was introduced to the anthropologist and priestA. P. Elkin; and as Curate to Elkin atSt James' Church, Morpeth (1932–1935).[3]
He pursued his linguistic studies privately, but went on to obtain anM.A. in Classics at the University of Sydney (1931). Encouraged by Elkin, he undertook a doctoral programme at theUniversity of London in 1935, and graduating the following year with aPh.D. from theSchool of Oriental and African Studies, with a thesis onThe linguistic position of south-easternPapua, which was published in book form in 1943. His primary interest was the languages of the Pacific and of New Guinea, and he is said to have regarded his research of aboriginal languages to be a matter of weekend work,[5] though he did spend lengthy periods doing fieldwork in both theKimberleys andArnhem Land.
When Elkin, then the Anglican rector atMorpeth, was appointed to a professorship in anthropology at Sydney, Capell served as hislocum tenens in the parish. On vacations back in Morpeth, Elkin was impressed by Capell's linguistic gifts, and eventually arranged a lectureship in linguistics for him[5] in 1945. He was appointed reader in 1948, and remained in that position until retirement in 1967.[4] He was made an honorary canon ofSs Peter and Paul Cathedral, Dogura in 1956.[3]
Notwithstanding his extensive work on Papuan and Polynesian languages, including dictionaries ofFijian,Palauan andWestern Futuna, Capell managed to make important contributions to Australian linguistics, particularly in discovering typologically distinct north-western languages which could not be assimilated to the standardPama-Nyungan language family.[6]
Capell was fond of punning,[7] an example being his pronunciation ofsemantics as "some antics".[5] When his housekeeper fell ill, he hired another to care for her and, when the second in turn fell ill, Capell looked after both of them.[8]
He died in 1986, aged 84. He was unmarried.[3]
TheUniversity of Sydney awards an annual prize in Capell's name for an essay on Australian and Pacific Linguistics.[9]
TheAustralian Museum holds the Capell Collection of Solomon Islands Photographs.[10] Capell's records have been digitised and deposited with theNational Library of Australia.[11] In some cases, his papers are the only surviving record of lost languages.
Capell House atNorthholm Grammar School,Arcadia is named after him.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
