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Marcel Samuel Raphaël Cohen (February 6, 1884 – November 5, 1974) was a French linguist. He was an important scholar of Semitic languages
Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
 and especially of Ethiopian languages. He studied the French language
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 and contributed much to general linguistics.

Life
Marcel Cohen was born in Paris. He studied at the Lycée Condorcet
Lycée Condorcet

The Lyc?e Condorcet is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France located at 8, rue du Havre in the city's IXe arrondissement. Since its inception, various political eras have seen it given a number of different names, but its identity today honors the memory of the Marquis de Condorcet....
. He attended Antoine Meillet
Antoine Meillet

Antoine Meillet , was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. Meillet began his studies at the University of Paris, where he was influenced by Michel Br?al, Ferdinand de Saussure, and the members of the Ann?e Sociologique....
's lectures at the Collège de France
Collège de France

The Coll?ge de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Ecoles....
 and the École pratique des hautes études
École Pratique des Hautes Études

The ?cole pratique des hautes ?tudes is a university in Paris, France. It is part of the University of Paris.The EPHE was created on 31 July 1868, by a decree of Victor Duruy, French Minister of Public Education, and is presently, "a grand institution of higher learning" according to the French Ministry of Education....
. In 1905 he registered at the École des langues orientales
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales

The Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales is located in Paris, France. It was founded in 1795 under the French Revolution and is now one of the country's Grands ?tablissements with a specialization in African, Asian, East European, Oceanian languages and civilisations....
 and graduated in 1909.






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Marcel Samuel Raphaël Cohen (February 6, 1884 – November 5, 1974) was a French linguist. He was an important scholar of Semitic languages
Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
 and especially of Ethiopian languages. He studied the French language
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 and contributed much to general linguistics.

Life


Marcel Cohen was born in Paris. He studied at the Lycée Condorcet
Lycée Condorcet

The Lyc?e Condorcet is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France located at 8, rue du Havre in the city's IXe arrondissement. Since its inception, various political eras have seen it given a number of different names, but its identity today honors the memory of the Marquis de Condorcet....
. He attended Antoine Meillet
Antoine Meillet

Antoine Meillet , was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. Meillet began his studies at the University of Paris, where he was influenced by Michel Br?al, Ferdinand de Saussure, and the members of the Ann?e Sociologique....
's lectures at the Collège de France
Collège de France

The Coll?ge de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Ecoles....
 and the École pratique des hautes études
École Pratique des Hautes Études

The ?cole pratique des hautes ?tudes is a university in Paris, France. It is part of the University of Paris.The EPHE was created on 31 July 1868, by a decree of Victor Duruy, French Minister of Public Education, and is presently, "a grand institution of higher learning" according to the French Ministry of Education....
. In 1905 he registered at the École des langues orientales
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales

The Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales is located in Paris, France. It was founded in 1795 under the French Revolution and is now one of the country's Grands ?tablissements with a specialization in African, Asian, East European, Oceanian languages and civilisations....
 and graduated in 1909. He Studied Amharic
Amharic language

Amharic is a Semitic languages spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara people. It is the second most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic language, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia....
 (under Mondon-Vidailhet), French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 linguistics, Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
, Ge'ez
Ge'ez language

Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the current region of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. It later became the official language of the Kingdom of Aksum and Ethiopian imperial court....
 and South Arabian
Old South Arabian

Old South Arabian is the term used for four closely related languages spoken in the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. These languages are distinct from Classical Arabic....
. He wrote his thesis on the Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 dialect
Dialect

A dialect is a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class....
 of the Jews of Algeria
Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
 (Le parler arabe des juifs d'Alger). Between March 1910 and June 1911, he undertook a journey to Ethiopia
Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
 in which he collected much material on Ethiopian languages. He succeeded Mondon-Vidailhet, who had just died, as chargé de cours d'Abyssin at the École des langues orientales. In 1916 he became Assistant Professor and in 1926 a full Professor. In 1919 he also became professor of Ethiopic at the École pratique des hautes études. He had several students who became distinguished éthiopisants, such as: Wolf Leslau
Wolf Leslau

Wolf Leslau was a scholar of Semitic languages and one of the foremost authorities on Semitic languages of Ethiopia....
, Stefan Strelcyn
Stefan Strelcyn

Stefan Strelcyn was a Polish scholar of Ethiopian Studies and a Semitist....
 and Joseph Tubiana.

Works


  • 1912: Le parler arabe des Juifs d'Alger. Paris: Champion.
  • 1912: Rapport sur une mission linguistique en Abyssinie (1910-1911). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
  • 1920: Documents ethnographiques d'Abyssinie. Paris: Leroux.
  • 1921: "La prononciation traditionelle du Guèze (éthiopien classique)", in: Journal asiatique Sér. 11 / T. 18 ( in Gallica digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
    Bibliothèque nationale de France

    The Biblioth?que nationale de France is the National library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France....
     PDF).
  • 1924: Couplets amhariques du Choa. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
  • 1924: Le système verbal sémitique et l'expression du temps. Paris: Leroux.
  • 1924: (with Antoine Meillet
    Antoine Meillet

    Antoine Meillet , was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. Meillet began his studies at the University of Paris, where he was influenced by Michel Br?al, Ferdinand de Saussure, and the members of the Ann?e Sociologique....
    ) Les langues du monde. Paris: Champion. (2nd ed. 1952)
  • 1931: Etudes d'éthiopien méridional. Paris: Geuthner.
  • 1934: Documents sudarabiques. Paris: dépôt chez Adrien Maisonneuve.
  • 1936: Traité de langue amharique. Paris: Institut d'Ethnographie. (reprinted: 1970, 1995 ISBN 2852650169)
  • 1939: Nouvelles études d'éthiopien meridional. Paris: Champion.
  • 1947: Essai comparatif sur le vocabulaire et la phonétique chamito-sémitique. Paris: Champion.
  • 1947: Histoire d'une langue: le français. Paris: Editions Réunis. (4th ed., Editions Sociales 1974)
  • 1950: Regards sur la langue française. Paris: Editions Sociales.
  • 1950: Le langage: structure et évolution. Paris: Editions Sociales.
  • 1954: Grammaire et style.
  • 1958: La grande invention de l'écriture et son évolution. Paris: Klincksieck.
  • 1962: Etudes sur le langage de l'enfant. Paris: Editions du Scarabée.
  • 1963: Nouveaux regards sur la langue française.
  • 1963: Encore des regards sur la langue française.
  • 1972: Une fois de plus des regards sur la langue française. Paris: Editions Sociales.


Footnotes