Richard Keith Sprigg (31 March 1922 – 8 September 2011) was a British linguist who specialised in the phonology of Asian languages. Sprigg was educated under J. R. Firth and was a member of the first generation of professional British linguists. Also as a consequence Sprigg was an advocate of the prosodic phonological method of Firth. Sprigg worked on several Tibeto-Burman languages including Lepcha, and various Tibetan dialects. He taught for many years at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and retired to Kalimpong, West Bengal, India with his wife Ray, granddaughter of David Macdonald the author of The Land of the Lama and 20 Years in Tibet, until her death.

Richard Keith Sprigg
Born(1922-03-31)31 March 1922
Died8 September 2011(2011-09-08) (aged 89)
NationalityBritish
Academic work
DisciplineLinguist
InstitutionsSOAS

In 2000 he returned to UK and lived in retirement with his second wife Elisabeth in Crowborough, East Sussex, England.

Works

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Reviews

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Works in Honour of R. K. Sprigg

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  • Prosodic analysis and Asian linguistics: to honour R.K. Sprigg. David Bradley, Eugénie J.A. Henderson, and Martine Mazaudon, eds. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1989.

Obituaries of R. K. Sprigg

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  • Kelly, John (2012). "In Memoriam: Richard Keith Sprigg (1922–2011)." Journal of the International Phonetic Association 42.1: 119–120.
  • Heleen Plaisier (2011). "Richard Keith Sprigg (1922–2011)." European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 38: 166–168.
  • Mazaudon, Martine (2011). "Obituary of Richard Keith Sprigg." Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 34.2: 133.
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