LINGUIST List 21.3823 Thu Sep 30 2010 All: Obituary: Gong Hwang-cherng (1934-2010) Editor for this issue: Elyssa Winzeler <elyssalinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm Directory         1.    Arielle Hsu, Obituary: Gong Hwang-cherng (1934-2010) Message 1: Obituary: Gong Hwang-cherng (1934-2010) Date: 28-Sep-2010 From: Arielle Hsu <linguistsinica.edu.tw> Subject: Obituary: Gong Hwang-cherng (1934-2010) E-mail this message to a friend The linguistic community of Taiwan deeply mourns the sad passing of Prof. Gong Hwang-cherng 龔煌城 at the age of 77 on Saturday, September 11, 2010. Prof. Gong joined the Academia Sinica (in Taiwan) in 1976, after receiving a PhD from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany. Since then he dedicated his life to an active, distinguished career in linguistics, which spanned nearly thirty-five years. A leading figure in Sino-Tibetan comparative linguistics, Tangut linguistics, and phonetic reconstruction of Old Chinese, he was an invited professor to many renowned linguistic institutions around the world, and taught at universities and summer institutes both in Taiwan and abroad. He became an LSA Honorary Member in 2001, an Academia Sinica Academician in 2002, and a recipient of a life achievement award granted by the Linguistic Society of Taiwan in 2006. Prof. Gong’s research was exemplary for its innovative insight, expository clarity, and methodological rigor. His seminal contributions to linguistics include his comparative study of Tibetan, Burmese, and Old Chinese vowels, reconstruction of Old Chinese phonology, and discovery and interpretations of phonological alternations of Tangut rhymes. The main body of his life’s work was condensed into two volumes published by the Institute of Linguistics in Academia Sinica in 2002: Collected Papers on Tangut Philology and Collected Papers on Sino-Tibetan Linguistics. Prof. Gong’s untimely departure is an irreparable loss to Chinese and Sino-Tibetan linguistics, and will leave a lasting sorrowful void in the hearts of his family, students, colleagues, and all who had the privilege to have associated with this kind and great, modest man. Sadly, Jackson T.-S. Sun Institute of Linguistics Academia Sinica, Taiwan Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 30-Sep-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.