Lorenzo Dow Turner

Father of Gullah Studies

Auteur: Wade-Lewis, Margaret
Éditeur: University of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 9781570036286
eISBN Pdf: 9781643363370
Lieu de publication: South Carolina , United States
Année de publication: 2022
Année de publication électronique: 2022
Mois : Mai
Pages: 369
DDC: 427/.97308996 B
Langue: Anglais

Légende

The first biography of the acclaimed African American linguist and author of Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect

In this first book-length biography of the pioneering African American linguist and celebrated father of Gullah studies, Margaret Wade-Lewis examines the life of Lorenzo Dow Turner. A scholar whose work dramatically influenced the world of academia but whose personal story—until now—has remained an enigma, Turner (1890-1972) emerges from behind the shadow of his germinal 1949 study Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect as a man devoted to family, social responsibility, and intellectual contribution.

Beginning with Turner's upbringing in North Carolina and Washington, D.C., Wade-Lewis describes the high expectations set by his family and his distinguished career as a professor of English, linguistics, and African studies. The story of Turner's studies in the Gullah islands, his research in Brazil, his fieldwork in Nigeria, and his teaching and research on Sierra Leone Krio for the Peace Corps add to his stature as a cultural pioneer and icon.

Drawing on Turner's archived private and published papers and on extensive interviews with his widow and others, Wade-Lewis examines the scholar's struggle to secure funding for his research, his relations with Hans Kurath and the Linguistic Atlas Project, his capacity for establishing relationships with Gullah speakers, and his success in making Sea Island Creole a legitimate province of analysis. Here Wade-Lewis answers the question of how a soft-spoken professor could so profoundly influence the development of linguistics in the United States and the work of scholars—especially in Gullah and creole studies—who would follow him.

Turner's widow, Lois Turner Williams, provides an introductory note and linguist Irma Aloyce Cunningham provides the foreword.

Cover
LORENZO DOW TURNER
Title
Copyright
Dedication
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Introductory Note
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Sally Rooks, Jacob Brady, and the Origins of the Rooks/Turner Clan: 1799–AND AFTER
2 Rooks Turner: 1844–1926
3 Elizabeth R. Sessoms Freeman Turner: 1861–1931
4 Childhood: 1890–1910
5 Howard University: 1910–1914
6 Chicago: 1914–1915
7 Harvard University: 1915–1917
8 Professor Lorenzo Dow Turner: 1917–1926
9 The University of Chicago: 1919–1926
10 Howard University—Turner’s Final Two Years: 1926–1928
11 The Washington Sun—A Venture in Entrepreneurship: SEPTEMBER 1928–JANUARY 1929
12 Fisk University: 1929–1932
13 The Beginnings of Gullah Research: 1932–1942
14 The University of London: 1936–1937
15 Lois Gwendolyn Morton: 1918–1938
16 Yale University: FALL 1938
17 Brazil and Back: 1940–1941
18 Fisk University and the Founding of African Studies: 1943–1946
19 Roosevelt College and the Publication of Africanisms in the Gullah Dialet 1946–1966
20 Africa at Last! 1951
21 The Peace Corps Project and Public Service: 1962–1966
22 Relations between Colleagues—Turner and Herskovits: 1936–1963
23 Turner’s Final Years: 1960–1972
24 Conclusions
Epilogue: Contemporary Relevance of Turner’s Contribution to Linguistics
Appendix: Lorenzo Dow Turner Family
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author