Donald Laycock | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1936 (1936) Australia |
| Died | 27 December 1988(1988-12-27) (aged 51–52) Canberra, Australia |
| Occupation | Linguist |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Australian National University |
| Thesis | TheNdu languages (1965) |
| Doctoral advisor | Stephen Wurm |
| Academic work | |
| Main interests | Papuan languages |
Donald C. Laycock (1936 – 27 December 1988) was an Australian linguist and anthropologist. He is best remembered for his work on the languages ofPapua New Guinea.
He was a graduate ofUniversity of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia and later worked as a researcher at theUniversity of Adelaide inAnthropology. He undertook his Ph.D. at theAustralian National University in linguistics and became one among the leading authorities on the languages of Papua New Guinea.[1]
He performed several pioneering surveys of the languages of theSepik region ofNew Guinea. The first of these, his Ph.D. research under the supervision ofStephen Wurm, was published asThe Ndu languages (1965), and established the existence of this closely related group of languages. In subsequent surveys, Laycock found theNdu languages were part of a larger language family extending through the middle and upper Sepik valley (the "Sepik subphylum"), and in 1973 he proposed that these languages formed part of aSepik–Ramu phylum. This remained the general consensus in the linguistic world for over 30 years. While more recent work byWilliam A. Foley andMalcolm Ross has cast doubt on a link between theRamu – Lower Sepik languages and theSepik languages, the "Sepik subphylum" seems established as a genuine group.
Laycock also first identified theTorricelli (1968) andPiawi groups of languages. He published numerous papers in linguistics and anthropology.
He was described by his fellow authors ofSkeptical (David Vernon,Colin Groves andSimon Brown) as a 20th-century 'Renaissance Man' as his interests were wide-ranging from Melanesian languages, tochannelling,Tarot cards andbawdy songs.
He was a Fellow of theAustralian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA), Vice President of theAustralian Linguistic Society (ALS) and a member ofMensa. A keen member of theAustralian Skeptics he entertained many people at Skeptic's conventions with his demonstrations ofglossolalia and going into trances. After his death, Laycock's meticulous work on theEnochian 'language' (which was allegedly channelled to an associate of the Elizabethan mysticJohn Dee) was turned by a colleague into one of the very few classics of skeptical linguistics.
He died, after a short illness, inCanberra, on 27 December 1988.
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