Alan R. King

Alan R. King
King in London, October 2009
Born(1954-10-24)24 October 1954
Died19 February 2019(2019-02-19) (aged 64)[4]
Resting placeDonosti
NationalityBritish
ChildrenOne daughter
Academic background
EducationLawrence House Prep School
Alma materQueen Mary, University of London[1][2]
ThesisCommunicative Grammar of the Basque Verb (Selected Aspects) (1993)
Academic work
Main interestsBasque, Nawat, Lenca
Websiteweb.archive.org/web/20190221163156/http://www.alanrking.info/

Alan Roy King (24 October 1954 – 19 February 2019) was a British linguist notable for his work on minority languages Basque and Nawat.[6] He was an independent scholar engaged in grammatical description, language recovery, teaching material development and translation projects for Basque, Nawat (Pipil, Central America) and Lencan (Central America).[7] King was Member of the Grammar Committee of the Royal Academy of the Basque Language (Euskaltzaindia) since 1985 and Corresponding member since 2003.[8]

King's parents were born in London and his grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. He grew up in England until he was thirteen, then in California, and then back in Europe. When he was twenty-five, he moved to the Basque Country, and since then he lived there, in Gipuzkoa, although he spent some time abroad, such as in England, Catalonia, Wales and El Salvador (Central America). His mother and brother live in Hawaii and he also spent time there. Languages were his main hobby. His areas of interest were linguistics (the study of how they “work”), grammar (how to describe them) and applied linguistics (how to teach languages).[9]

King spoke and communicated in English, Welsh, French, Basque, Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Nawat,[10] Hawaiian, Hebrew, Yiddish and Lenca.[11]

  1. ^ British Library.
  2. ^ Linguist List.
  3. ^ Celia's World.
  4. ^ [1].
  5. ^ "Alan R. King britaniar euskalduna". 21 February 2019.
  6. ^ Ne Bibliaj Tik Nawat.
  7. ^ King, Alan R. (January 2018). ""Alan R. King Independent linguist"". ResearchGate. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  8. ^ Alan R. King britaniar euskalduna. El Diario Vasco, February 2019. Author: Miren Azkarate
  9. ^ Alan R. King britaniar euskalduna. El Diario Vasco, February 2019. Author: Miren Azkarate
  10. ^ Alan King: "Euskara ez dago salbu". Zarautzko Hitza, November 2018. Author: Jon Muñoa Guenaga.
  11. ^ Alan R. King. Linguist. Alan´s personal website. Year 2016.