Jerry Norman (sinologist)

Jerry Lee Norman
Born	(1936-07-16)July 16, 1936 Watsonville, California, United States
Died	July 7, 2012(2012-07-07) (aged 75) Seattle, Washington, United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Chinese linguistics
Institutions	University of Washington
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley (B.A., Ph.D.)
Academic advisors	Y. R. Chao
Notable students	W. South Coblin
Known for	Study of Min Chinese dialects, Manchu language
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	羅傑瑞
Simplified Chinese	罗杰瑞
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Luó Jiéruì Wade–Giles Luo Chieh-jui Gwoyeu Romatzyh Luo Jyeruey Xiao'erjing Southern Min Hokkien POJ Lô Kia̍t-suī
Manchu name
Manchu script	ᡝᠯᠪᡳᡥᡝ

Jerry Lee Norman (July 16, 1936 – July 7, 2012) was an American sinologist and linguist best known for his studies of Chinese dialects and Chinese historical phonology, especially the Min Chinese dialects and the Manchu language. Norman had a large impact on Chinese linguistics, and was largely responsible for the identification of the importance of the Min Chinese dialects in linguistic research into Old Chinese.

Biography

Jerry Norman was born on July 16, 1936, in Watsonville, California. After graduating from high school, he began attending the University of California at Berkeley where he studied Chinese under the prominent Chinese linguist and polymath Y. R. Chao. In 1965 he had worked with Leo Chen on an introduction to the Fuzhou dialect and a Fuzhou-English glossary, and in 1966 Norman joined the Chinese Linguistics Project at Princeton University as a staff linguist. He subsequently went to Taiwan to engage in field research on Taiwanese, and in 1969 he completed his PhD at Berkeley, with a dissertation on the Jianyang dialect of Fujian. In 1972, he joined the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, where he remained for the rest of his academic career, retiring in 1998. In a series of papers from 1973, Norman applied the comparative method to popular forms in modern Min dialects to reconstruct proto-Min.

He died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Seattle on July 7, 2012.

Works

• 1965. With Leo Chen. Foochow-English Glossary. San Francisco State College.
• 1965. With Leo Chen. An Introduction to the Foochow Dialect. San Francisco State College.
• 1967. A Manchu-English Dictionary. Taipei.
• 1969. The Kienyang Dialect of Fukien. University of California, Berkeley. PhD dissertation.
• 1973. "Tonal Development in Min"; Journal of Chinese Linguistics 1–2: 222–238.
• 1974. "The Initials of Proto-Min"; Journal of Chinese Linguistics 2-1: 27–36.
• 1974. "Structure of Sibe Morphology"; Central Asian Journal.
• 1976. With Mei Tsu-lin. "The Austroasiatics in Ancient South China: Some Lexical Evidence"; Monumenta Serica 32: 274–301, JSTOR 40726203.
• 1978. A Concise Manchu-English Lexicon. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-95574-2.
• 1979. "Chronological Strata in the Min Dialects"; Fangyan 方言 1979.4: 268–274.
• 1980. "Yongan fanyan" 永安方言; Shumu Jikan 书目季刊 14–2: 113–165.
• 1981. "The Proto-Min Finals"; 中央研究院国际汉学会议论文集 语言文字组: 35–73.
• 1984. "Three Min Etymologies"; Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 13–2: 175–189. doi:10.3406/clao.1984.1155.
• 1986. "闽北方言的第三套清塞音和清擦塞音"; Zhongguo Yuwen 中国语文 1986.1: 38–41.
• 1988. Chinese. Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.
• 1991. "The Mǐn Dialects in Historical Perspective"; Languages and Dialects of China, edited by William S.-Y. Wang, pp.325–360. Published by Journal of Chinese Linguistics.
• 1995. With Weldon South Coblin. "A New Approach to Chinese Historical Linguistics"; Journal of the American Oriental Society 115–4: 576–584.
• 1996. "Tonal Development in the Jennchyan Dialect"; Yuen Ren Society Treasury of Chinese Dialect Data 2: 7–41.
• 2000. With Gilbert Louis Mattos. translation of Chinese Writing by Qiu Xigui. Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California. ISBN 978-1-55729-071-7
• 2002. "A Glossary of the Lianduentsuen Dialect"; Short Chinese Dialect Reports 1: 339–394.
• 2006. "Min Animal Body Parts"; Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 1–1: 133–143.
• 2007. "汉语方言田野调查与音韵学"; Beijing Daxue Xuebao 北京大学学报 44.2: 91–94.
• 2013. A Comprehensive Manchu-English Dictionary. Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN 978-0-674-07213-8

References

Footnotes

Works Cited

• Sagart, Laurent (2012). "Jerry Norman". Cahiers de linguistique – Asie orientale 41 (2): 341–351.