LINGUIST List 4.111

Wed 17 Feb 1993

Misc: Obituary, Berkeley library

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Dr M Sebba, Obituary
2. "Bruce E. Nevin", budgetary axe

Probably not many subscribers to LINGUIST knew Patrick Dickens, the
South African linguist. Like many of his colleagues, he worked in
relative isolation from linguists in other parts of the world, and even
in Southern Africa, Khoi-San phonology is a minority interest. Patrick
was one of my teachers when I was an undergraduate, and though later he
gave up a teaching career in lingustics and turned to rural development
with a linguistic focus, his devotion to linguistics has remained an
example to me and others whom he taught. Those who did as well as those
who did not know him may find it interesting to read the article which
follows, which was published in a Johannesburg paper days after his
death last October, and provides a rare instance of a public obituary and
appreciation of a linguist.

PATRICK'S LAST WORDS TO HIS BELOVED BUSHMEN

Patrick Dickens, a quiet fellow, died in his sleep this week, but not
before, in his quiet unassuming way, achieving a great advance for one
of the Bushman languages.

His achievement was to compile an English-Ju/'Hoan Dictionary.

Largely, said Dickens (39) in an interview just a few days ago, the
word "Bushman" has become a derogatory term; derogatory in much the
same way "Bantu" is because it lumps all blacks together.

That, said Patrick, was his own objection to Bushman - the term was so
imprecise. The dictionary Patrick compiled, for example, is of the
language spoken by the Ju/'Hoansi tribe, and their language - Dickens
pointed out - is as different from that spoken by the !Xoo people as
English is from Russian!

The dictionary, which should be out before the end of the year, is
being published by Florida State University in the US, and Patrick's
orthography (way of spelling) for the Ju/'Hoan language has been
accepted by the Namibian authorities as official.

How did he come to have such an intense interest in Bushman languages?
To start with, Dickens was a linguist by trade. He had an MA in
linguistics from Wits University and was - as he put it - "quite
irrationally interested in any language". His languages included
English, Afrikaans, German, French (enough to get by), Ju/'Hoan,
southern Sotho, and at least a working knowledge of !Xoo and Zulu.

He took the job with the Ju/Wa Development Foundation because it was "a
chance to learn another Bushman language". Earlier, in 1975, he had
spent a year in Botswana as "a teacher, gardener, barefoot-doctor" and
learnt the !Xoo language.

Today, the organisation he joined under the SWA Administration is known
as the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia. Its function is
rural development, and it is a scheme funded from outside Namibia,
partly by the florida State University. For the two years he worked for
the Foundation, Patrick learnt to rough it. Mostly he lived in a tent.

He was based at a place called /Aotcha to the east of Baraka, where the
Foundation's headquarters are today. Patrick showed me photographs of
life in /Aotcha. That life bears ittle or no resemblance to the picture
most people have of Bushmen - people dressed in skins, with painted
faces and bows and arrows, stalking game.

....

The Ju/'Hoan dictionary also gives all the names given to its people.
The choice isn't very wide. There are just 98 of them.

Patrick was obviously in pain when he granted the interview, cancer of
the lymph glands steadily debilitating his system, but he was cheerful
and courageous to the very end. "I'm feeling good today", he joked as
he walked me to the gate, "perhaps I'll start on a dictionary of one of
the other tribes."
 - Michael Shafto, The Star, Johannesburg, October 15 1992.

The following concerns the budgetary axe hovering over the School
of Library and Information Science at U.C. Berkeley. It was sent
me by a friend whose daughter (the author) is a graduate student there.

It is relevant to linguists for a number of reasons, including:

* The intersection of linguistics, particularly computational
 linguistics, with informatics (they produce the IRList Digest,
 an email forum for information-retrieval matters of interest
 to at least some linguists).

* Strategies and responses employed may be useful examples for
 linguistics departments similarly threatened.

* The school and its work has intrinsic value to the academic
 community, not to mention general social benefit.

Here is the letter from my friend's daughter:

-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-

[ . . . ] The School of Library & Information
Studies has been "under review" for several years now, part of a
regular process that's been lengthened. Academically, there are
no major changes that have been recommended. However, all this
is coming to a head at a very bad time because of the budget
crisis in California. A new committee is studying ways to cut
the budget (they're anticipating 10% or so in addition to what's
already been cut) and the first department or school to reach the
review of this advisory planning board is SLIS. Lucky us.

The board meets once a month and decided at the most recent one that at the
next (Feb 24) they will vote to advise the Chancellor to either continue the
School and recruit a new dean (which has been on hold for ages) or close the
school. This is not a final vote on the school, but it's advisory and
it's highly likely the Chancellor will go with it. If the school is closed,
everyone will graduate, but it's obviously not what any of us want to see
happen.

They have asked that we write letters by February 17 to the Chancellor and
also get other people to write letters. [ . . . ]

The school has drafted a couple of sheets of information, which I'll give you
some of here. First, the address is:

 Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien
 University of California
 Berkeley, CA 94720
 Phone: 510-642-7464, Fax: 510-643-5499

The message the school has asked to convey is:

 -- Value of the library and information profession to the economy,
 to education, to quality of life

 -- Importance of the school to California, the West, the USA
 -- Student demand in CA exceeds the combined capacity
 of existing programs. Fewer programs nationwide create
 added need for UCB's.
 -- Availability of jobs
 -- Excellence of the school and its grads

 -- Need for UCB to be at forefront of research in lib & info
 systems now, when these are of growing national importance
 (think of NREN, etc.)

 -- Questionable process: decision not the result of a careful
 assessment of community needs and campus strengths. Review of
 School recommended strenthening, not closure.

 -- Impact of a negative decision about the school on your
 support for the University and the campus, which hopes to raise
 $1 billion from alumni and the business community.

Some facts on the "fact sheet" given to us:

-- The review recommended the strengthening of the School because "the
 field is an important intellectual, academic and professional activity"
-- Despite the recession and current reductions in the public sector,
 librarian employment remains strong.
-- Empolyment is in a wide range of information-related jobs.
-- Info industry is of growing importance to CA and the USA. CEOs of
 13 leading US computer companies recently urged the Clinton-Gore
 admin. to make research and investment in the info infrastructure,
 including libraries and online databases, a national priority.
-- UCB SLIS is one of three in the state and only 4 in the west
 with professional education for librarians. Berkeley turns away 3
 students for each one admitted.
-- UCB has a commitment to a diverse student body. 25% of SLIS
 students are ethnic minorities, 70% are women.
-- Funded research has increased over 1,000% in 5 years, from
 $23,000 to $1.9 million in proposals funded or currently under review.
-- FEllowship support has more than tripled in 5 years. The amt.
 from non-UC sources has increased 8-fold.
-- Very little money will actually be saved. The program is small
 compared to others on campus. Student slots will be reallocated
 to other campus units, staff and tenured faculty reassigned, vacant
 faculty FTE reassigned to other campus units.
[ . . . ]