Geoffrey Khan
{{Short description|British linguist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix = Professor
| honorific_suffix = FBA
| name = Geoffrey Khan
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1958|02|01}}
| birth_place = Middlesbrough, England
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| workplaces = University of Cambridge
| alma_mater = School of Oriental and African Studies
| thesis_title = Extraposition and Pronominal Agreement in Semitic Languages
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| thesis_year = 1984
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Geoffrey Allan Khan FBA (born 1 February 1958) is a British linguist and philologist of Semitic languages. He has held the post of Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge since 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/k/20228/Geoffrey%20Allan+KHAN.aspx |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130215194755/http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/k/20228/Geoffrey%20Allan+KHAN.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 February 2013 |title=Geoffrey Allan KAHN |publisher=Debretts |accessdate=23 January 2013 }} Considered one of the world's leading experts on Aramaic, he has published grammars for numerous Aramaic dialects{{#tag:ref|of Barwari, Qaraqosh, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Halabja in Iraq; of Urmia and Sanandaj in Iran|group= n}} and he leads the [https://nena.ames.cam.ac.uk/index-new.php North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208004255/https://nena.ames.cam.ac.uk/index-new.php |date=8 February 2018 }}.{{Cite web |url=https://nena.ames.cam.ac.uk/index-new.php |title=Archived copy |access-date=7 February 2018 |archive-date=8 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208004255/https://nena.ames.cam.ac.uk/index-new.php |url-status=dead }}.{{cite web | url = http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ideas-innovations/How-to-Save-a-Dying-Language-187947061.html | title = How to Save a Dying Language | first = Ariel | last = Sabar | date = February 2013 | accessdate = 11 February 2013 | publisher = Smithsonian Magazine | archive-date = 27 January 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130127184700/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ideas-innovations/How-to-Save-a-Dying-Language-187947061.html | url-status = dead }} His other research has included Biblical Hebrew and medieval Arabic documents.
Biography
Khan was born and raised in Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire.{{cite web |author=Weam Namou|title=Interview with Prof. Geoffrey Khan from University of Cambridge |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJkA7Vivfgo |website=YouTube |date=Jan 2021}}{{cite web|title=Genizah Fragments Volume 6|url=http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/GF/6/|publisher=The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit|accessdate=13 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110922092715/http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Taylor-Schechter/GF/6/|archive-date=22 September 2011|url-status=dead}} His mother was English whereas his father was South Asian of Iranian descent. His paternal grandfather was an Ismaili Muslim who married a Catholic, and Geoffrey's father went to a Jesuit school in Bombay. One of his paternal great-grandmothers was the daughter of a Welsh Wesleyan missionary, and Khan also has Native American ancestry. His parents separated when he was quite young and he was raised by his mother and grandmother. He went to a "rough" comprehensive school where he suffered from racial abuse, and "took refuge in learning languages".{{cite web |title=The scholar whose career began in the books section of his local newsagent |url=https://medium.com/this-cambridge-life/the-scholar-whose-career-began-in-the-books-section-of-his-local-newsagent-dfaada89f095 |website=This Cambridge Life |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180601074628/https://medium.com/this-cambridge-life/the-scholar-whose-career-began-in-the-books-section-of-his-local-newsagent-dfaada89f095 |archive-date=Jun 1, 2018 |date=May 31, 2018}}{{cite web |last1=Terence Handley MacMath |title=Interview: Geoffrey Khan, Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/1-february/features/interviews/interview-geoffrey-khan-regius-professor-of-hebrew-cambridge |publisher=Church Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103180512/https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/1-february/features/interviews/interview-geoffrey-khan-regius-professor-of-hebrew-cambridge |archive-date=Nov 3, 2021 |date=Feb 1, 2019|url-status=live}}
In 1984, he gained his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies with a thesis entitled Extraposition and Pronominal Agreement in Semitic Languages. He became a researcher at the Cambridge University Library (1983-1993), working on the Cairo Genizah manuscripts. He then joined the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies in 1993. In 2002, he was appointed Professor of Semitic Philology in Cambridge.{{cite web|title=Hebrew & Semitic Studies Teaching Staff |url=http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/general_info/biographies/hebrew/Khan.htm |publisher=University of Cambridge |accessdate=13 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316112811/http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/general_info/biographies/hebrew/Khan.htm |archivedate=16 March 2012 }}
His main area of research is in linguistics studies of Hebrew and Aramaic while the focus of his Aramaic research is on North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects.{{cite web | title=The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Database Project | website=University of Cambridge | url=https://nena.ames.cam.ac.uk/about/ | access-date=2023-10-07}}
Honours
- Fellow of the British Academy, 1998
- Honorary Fellow of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, 2011.
- Lidzbarski Gold Medal for Semitic philology, 2004.
- Fellow of Academia Europaea, 2014.{{cite web |title=Professor Geoffrey Khan (Staff Profile( |url=https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/people/professor-geoffrey-khan |website=Cambridge University Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies |date=4 December 2017 |access-date=24 November 2022}}
- Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society, 2015.
- Honorary Doctorate, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2017.
- Honorary Doctorate, University of Uppsala, 2018.
Works
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Qaraqosh|year=2002|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004348585 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w__0DwAAQBAJ}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=Aramaic in the Medieval and Modern Periods|title=Languages of Iraq: Ancient and Modern|year=2007|location=Cambridge|publisher=The British School of Archaeology in Iraq|pages=95–114|chapter-url=http://www.bisi.ac.uk/sites/bisi.localhost/files/languages_of_iraq.pdf}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects|journal=Journal of Semitic Studies|year=2007|volume=52|issue=1|pages=1–20|doi=10.1093/jss/fgl034 |url=https://www.academia.edu/37461910}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=Remarks on the Historical Background of the Modern Assyrian Language|journal=Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies|year=2007|volume=21|issue=1|pages=1–6|url=https://www.academia.edu/37461912}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Barwar: Grammar|year=2008|volume=1|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004167650 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFeZCFOiJ0MC}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=The Expression of Definiteness in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects|title=Aramaic in Its Historical and Linguistic Setting|year=2008|location=Wiesbaden|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|pages=287–304|isbn=9783447057875 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfVZnCV6ABcC&pg=PA287}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of Iraq|title=The Christian Heritage of Iraq|year=2009|location=Piscataway, NJ|publisher=Gorgias Press|pages=226–236|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/37461922}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic|title=The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook|year=2012|location=Berlin-Boston|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|pages=708–724|isbn=9783110251586 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMzgBLT87MkC}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=Remarks on the Dialects of the Assyrians in North-Western Iran|journal=Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies|year=2012|volume=26|issue=1–2|pages=1–14|url=https://www.academia.edu/37462044}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=The Language of the Modern Assyrians: The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialect Group|title=The Assyrian Heritage: Threads of Continuity and Influence|year=2012|location=Uppsala|publisher=Uppsala Universitet|pages=173–199|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/37462045}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=Phonological Emphasis in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic|journal=Carmillim, for the Study of Hebrew and Related Languages|year=2014|volume=10|number=2|pages=15–27|url=https://www.academia.edu/37462067}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=Domains of Emphasis, Syllable Structure and Morphological Boundaries in the Christian Urmi Dialect of Neo-Aramaic|title=Neo-Aramaic and its Linguistic Context|year=2015|location=Piscataway, NJ|publisher=Gorgias Press|pages=145–161|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/37462087}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=Causative Constructions in Neo-Aramaic (Christian Urmi Dialect)|title=Arabic and Semitic Linguistics Contextualized|year=2015|location=Wiesbaden|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|pages=506–530|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/37462089}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian Christians of Urmi|year=2016|volume=1|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|url=https://www.academia.edu/43403019}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian Christians of Urmi|year=2016|volume=2|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|url=https://www.academia.edu/43403028}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian Christians of Urmi|year=2016|volume=3|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|url=https://www.academia.edu/43403032}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian Christians of Urmi|year=2016|volume=4|location=Leiden-Boston|publisher=Brill|url=https://www.academia.edu/43403037}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=Remarks on Roots and Stems in the Christian Urmi Dialect of Neo-Aramaic|title=Babel und Bibel 9: Proceedings of the 6th Biennial Meeting of the International Association for Comparative Semitics and Other Studies|year=2016|location=Winona Lake|publisher=Eisenbrauns|pages=105–118|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/37462101}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=Sound Symbolism in Neo-Aramaic|title=Near Eastern and Arabian Essays: Studies in Honour of John F. Healey|year=2018|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=197–214|isbn=978-0-19-883106-8 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RUsgvgEACAAJ}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|title=Remarks on the Historical Development and Syntax of the Copula in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects|journal=Aramaic Studies|year=2018|volume=16|number=2|pages=234–269|doi=10.1163/17455227-01602010 |s2cid=195503300 |url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/bb40750b-a9d2-4b02-9eee-d29936e77b8b/download}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=Jewish Neo-Aramaic in Kurdistan and Iran|title=Languages in Jewish Communities, Past and Present|year=2018|location=Berlin-Boston|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|pages=9–34|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/37731340}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of Eastern Anatolia and Northwestern Iran|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia: An Areal Perspective|year=2019|location=Berlin-Boston|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|pages=190–236|isbn=9783110421743 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHiWDwAAQBAJ}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of Northern Iraq|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia: An Areal Perspective|year=2019|location=Berlin-Boston|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|pages=305–353|isbn=9783110421743 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHiWDwAAQBAJ}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of Western Iran|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia: An Areal Perspective|year=2019|location=Berlin-Boston|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|pages=481–532|isbn=9783110421743 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHiWDwAAQBAJ}}
- {{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Khan|chapter=The Neo-Aramaic Dialects and Their Historical Background|title=The Syriac World|year=2019|location=London|publisher=Routledge|pages=266–289|isbn=9781138899018 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E48JswEACAAJ}}
- {{cite book |last1=Khan |first1=Geoffrey |title=The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, Volume 1 |series=Semitic Languages and Cultures |date=2020 |volume=1 |publisher=Open Book Publishers |doi=10.11647/obp.0163 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-1-78374-677-4 |language=en}}
- {{cite book |last1=Hornkohl |first1=Aaron |last2=Khan |first2=Geoffrey |title=Studies in Semitic Vocalisation and Reading Traditions|date=1 June 2020 |publisher=Open Book Publishers |isbn=978-1-78374-937-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=brroDwAAQBAJ&q=geoffrey+khan+hebrew |language=en}}
Notes
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References
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{{Regius Professors of Hebrew (Oxbridge)}}
{{University of Cambridge}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Geoffrey}}
Category:Regius Professors of Hebrew (Cambridge)
Category:Fellows of the British Academy
Category:Alumni of SOAS University of London