Creator

Franklin E. Huffman

American linguist of Southeast Asian languages who wrote the standard Yale series of Cambodian language textbooks and readers.

Franklin E. Huffman is an American linguist and diplomat who wrote the Yale Linguistic Series course books for learning Cambodian.[1][2] He taught Southeast Asian languages at Yale University and at Cornell University, where he was a full professor from 1972 to 1985, and then served for 14 years in the United States Foreign Service.[3][4]

Early life and education

Huffman graduated from Bridgewater College in 1955.[5][6] From 1956 to 1958 he volunteered with International Voluntary Services in Laos as a French interpreter. In 1958 he traveled from Laos to London by motorcycle, by bus, by hitchhiking and on the back of an elephant.[4]

He entered Cornell University in 1960, which began his lifelong interest in the Mon-Khmer languages. He spent two years in Southeast Asia on his dissertation research.[5][4] His 1967 doctoral thesis, An Outline of Cambodian Grammar, was never published, but he drew on it in much of his later work on the language. Madeline Ehrman's Grammatical Sketch of Contemporary Cambodian cites it prominently, and the SEAlang archive credits it with an important influence on later Khmer grammar scholarship.[7][5]

Academic career

Huffman began at Yale University in 1967 as an assistant professor of Far Eastern languages and literatures. From 1967 to 1972 he taught Thai, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Southeast Asian linguistics there.[4][3] When the Yale program closed in the early 1970s, he moved to Cornell University. He was a full professor there from 1972 to 1985 and taught the same languages.[4][3][1] During his Cornell years he worked on a Cambodian dictionary.[4]

His research dealt with the Mon-Khmer languages, especially Cambodian.[5] With a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in 1970 and 1971, he gathered Mon-Khmer materials in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, including vocabulary lists and sound analyses for Burmese Mon and Thai Mon.[5] He also compiled a comparative list of about 1,000 words in each of 20 languages, which he cited as early as 1971.[5] From 1967 onward he published research on Khmer loanwords in Thai and on Mon-Khmer languages, including Chong.[7] In 2007 he left his unpublished research notebooks to the CRCL archive, where the Huffman Papers are held.[5]

Foreign Service

Huffman joined the Foreign Service of the United States Information Agency in 1985.[4][1] Before then he had worked and traveled in about 60 countries.[3] After a year as acting deputy in the State Department's policy office for European affairs and a training post in London, he served in Rangoon, Burma, from 1987 to 1989. The oral history gives his title there as assistant public affairs officer, and German Wikipedia calls him the embassy's press spokesman.[4][1] He then directed the American Cultural Center in Marrakech, Morocco (1989 to 1990). In Paris (1990 to 1993) he was director of programs for the agency, or director of the United States Information Service there in the Wikipedia account.[4][1]

After a policy post in Washington, D.C. (1994 to 1995), he was public affairs officer in Phnom Penh from 1995 to 1997, a time of political turmoil, Khmer Rouge activity and elections. His work there involved the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, United States policy, the Fulbright Program, the media and Cambodian American organizations.[4] His last regular posting, from 1997 to 1999, is given as New Zealand by German Wikipedia and his memoir's publisher, and as Canberra, Australia, in the oral history contents.[1][6][4] He retired in 1999. He then served short tours as public affairs officer in N'Djamena, Chad (1999 to 2000), and as acting public affairs officer in Phnom Penh (2002).[4][6]

Works


Huffman is the author of ten books on Southeast Asian languages and linguistics.[6]

Modern Spoken Cambodian (Yale University Press, 1970), part of the Yale Linguistic Series, is a textbook of spoken Khmer for foreign learners. He wrote it with the help of Charan Promchan and Chhom-Rak Thong Lambert.[8][9] It opens with a pronunciation drill unit, followed by 25 dialogue units and five review units, and it has Cambodian-English and English-Cambodian glossaries. The Cornell Southeast Asia Program reissued it in 1984, a paperback edition from Spoken Language Services followed in 1987, and a third printing appeared in 1991. Audio tapes for the course were sold separately through Cornell's Language Resource Center.[10] Yale University Press also lists the course under the title Spoken Cambodian.[11]

Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader (Yale University Press, 1970) prepares students to read and write Cambodian alongside Modern Spoken Cambodian, and it uses the same transcription, which Huffman developed over five years of study and teaching.[2][12] The book explains how Cambodian writing relates to the sound system of the language and includes structured reading drills. Its reader section holds 50 selections, from short narratives to essays about Cambodian culture, and the volume ends with a Cambodian-English glossary of about 2,000 words.[2]

The 502-page Intermediate Cambodian Reader continues the series.[13] Huffman's research articles include "The Register Problem in Fifteen Mon-Khmer Languages" and "The Relevance of Lexicostatistics to Mon-Khmer Languages" (both 1976), "The Phonology of Chong" (1985), "Khmer Loanwords in Thai" (1986) and "Burmese Mon, Thai Mon, and Nyah Kur: A Synchronic Comparison" (1987 to 1988).[7]

Monks and Motorcycles: From Laos to London by the Seat of My Pants, 1956-1958 tells the story of his two years as a volunteer in Laos and his journey to London. The oral history dates it to 2006 and German Wikipedia to 2004.[4][1] His memoir Your Diplomats at Work: A Comedy in Seven Acts (Xlibris, 2011) covers his postings in London, Burma, Morocco, Paris, Washington, Cambodia, New Zealand and Chad. It criticizes bureaucracy in the State Department and proposes practical changes.[6][1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 German Wikipedia, Franklin E. Huffman
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 ERIC, Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader (1970), ED037706
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Your Diplomats at Work: A Comedy in Seven Acts
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Franklin E. Huffman oral history, table of contents
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 SEAlang, Franklin Huffman Documents (2007)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Your Diplomats at Work (memoirs and occasional papers)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 SEAlang, Southeast Asian Linguistics Archives, HUFFMAN, Franklin Eugene
  8. ↑ East Carolina University Libraries, catalog record for Modern Spoken Cambodian
  9. ↑ Internet Archive, Modern Spoken Cambodian (1970)
  10. ↑ AbeBooks, Modern Spoken Cambodian (Yale Linguistic Series)
  11. ↑ Yale University Press, Spoken Cambodian
  12. ↑ Internet Archive, Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader, catalog record
  13. ↑ Yale University Press, Intermediate Cambodian Reader
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