Kenneth H. Jackson

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Kenneth H. Jackson

Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson (1 November 1909 – 20 February 1991) was an English linguist

Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
and a translator who specialised in the Celtic languages

Celtic languages

The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European languages language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in central Gaul....
. He demonstrated how the text of the Ulster Cycle

Ulster Cycle

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Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson (1 November 1909 – 20 February 1991) was an English linguist

Linguistics

Celtic languages

Ulster Cycle

The Ulster Cycle, formerly known as the Red Branch Cycle, one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology, is a body of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas of the traditional heroes of the Ulaid in what is now eastern Ulster and northern Leinster, particularly counties County Armagh, County Down and County Louth....
of tales, written down around 1100, preserves an oral tradition of some six centuries earlier and reflects Celtic Irish society of the third and fourth century AD. His Celtic Miscellany is a popular standard.

He married Janet Dall Galloway on 12 August 1936. Their two children Alaster and Stephenie were born in the USA but brought up in Scotland. In retirement, Jackson continued his work on place-names and Gaelic languages. However he suffered a stroke in 1984 that restricted his work.

An obituary was published the The Times on 8 March 1991 and in Nomina 15.

Education

Born at Beddington

Beddington

Beddington is a settlement between the London Borough of Sutton and London Borough of Croydon. The BedZED low energy housing scheme is located here....
, Surrey, Jackson's early education was at Hillcrest School, Wallington (1916-19) and then at Whitgift Grammar School, Croydon

Croydon

Croydon is a large town and major commercial centre in South London, and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Croydon. It is south of Charing Cross, and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan....
from 1920-1928. He won an open scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College, an institution known formally as The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort in 1511....
in 1928. He studied under Hector and Nora Chadwick, becoming fluent in six Celtic languages. At Cambridge he read Classics

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean World; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity ....
and then studied the early cultures of the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain and Ireland, and numerous smaller islands....
. He was then awarded a travelling scholarship during which he undertook study and fieldwork in Wales and Ireland. In the 1950s he spent his vacations recording dialects for the Linguistic Survey of Scotland.

Academic appointments

Jackson returned to Cambridge in 1934 as a lecturer in Celtic. In 1939 he went to Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
and was appointed an associate professor in 1940, being the first chair of the Department of Celtic Language and Literature. He undertook war service with the Uncommon Languages section of British censorship (where he said he learnt Japanese

Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
in three weeks). Afterwards he went back to Harvard, and became a full professor in 1948. He accepted the chair of Celtic Languages, History and Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh founded in 1582, is an internationally renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom....
, Scotland (1950-1979).

Publications

While at Edinburgh Jackson published articles and books on the ancient Celts, and the Dark Ages

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages is a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 to 1000....
and Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, on all six modern Celtic languages, on folklore, placenames and dialects. A bibliography of his publications appears in Studia Celtica 14/14, pp 5-11 (1979-80). A selection of his publications is given below:

1935. Studies in Early Celtic Nature Poetry, Cambridge: University Press.
1953. Language and history in early Britain: A chronological survey of the Brittonic languages, first to twelfth century A.D., Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press.
1955. The Pictish Language in F T Wainwright (ed) The Problem of the Picts. Edinburgh.
1955. Contributions to the study of Manx phonology, University of Edinburgh Linguistic Survey of Scotland Series.
1959. "The Arthur of History" Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-811588-1.
1959. "Arthur in Early Welsh Verse" Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
1961. "The international popular tale and early Welsh tradition" The Gregynog Lectures, 1961, Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
1964. The oldest Irish tradition: A window on the Iron Age, Cambridge: University Press. Reprinted 1999.
1967. A Historical phonology of Breton, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Dublin, Ireland was established in 1940 by the Taoiseach of the time, ?amon de Valera under the . The Institute consists of 3 schools....
, Dublin
Dublin

Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
, ISBN 978-0901282538
1969. The Gododdin
Y Gododdin

Y Gododdin is a medieval Welsh language poem consisting of a series of elegy to the men of the Britons kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at a place named Catraeth....
: The Oldest Scottish poem, Edinburgh:University Press.
1972, etc. A Celtic Miscellany : Translations from the Celtic Literature, Penguin Paperback. ISBN 0-14-044247-2. Poetry and prose from six Celtic languages, Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Breton and Manx.
1990. Aislinge Meic Con Glinne, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Dublin, ISBN 0-901282-94-4

Other activities

Jackson was a Fellow of the British Academy

British Academy

The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established by Royal Charter in 1902, and is a fellowship of more than 800 scholars....
(elected 1957) and a Commissioner for the ancient and historical monuments of Scotland. He held honorary degrees from universities in England, Wales, Ireland and Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a former independent Celtic nations monarchy and duchy, now incorporated into France. It is also, more generally, the name of the cultural area whose limits correspond to the historic province and independent duchy....
. He was awarded a CBE

CBE

CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for Commander of the British Empire, a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Calgary Board of Education, public school board for the city of Calgary, Alberta...
in 1985 for his work on Celtic studies. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Modern Language Association

Modern Language Association

The Modern Language Association of America is the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature....
. He was a member of the Council of the English Placename Society for over forty years, being both Vice-President and then President.

He gave the John Rhys Lecture at the British Academy in 1953 on "Common Gaelic", and the 1964 Rede Lecture on "The Oldest Irish Tradition".