Born in Ireland, William Marsden (1754–1836) was a pioneer in the study of oriental languages, in particular those of modern-day Malaysia and Indonesia. At the age of seventeen he joined his elder brother to work for the East India Company in Sumatra, and began researching the languages of the East Indies. He moved to London in 1779 and became associated with its scientific and academic circles, attending meetings of the Royal Society and becoming a friend of Sir Joseph Banks. This gave him access to vocabularies compiled by naval officers, and these, combined with his own observations, allowed him to produce the pioneering works that made his reputation. (His History of Sumatra and Dictionary of the Malayan Language are also reissued in this series.) First published in 1796, this work helped to fuel the growing interest in languages and philology at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Here is the latest news on Euralex 2012 to be held in Oslo, Norway.

These are the speakers who have accepted the invitation to deliver plenary lectures. You can read short summaries of their lectures on the Euralex 2012 web page.

Registration is now open. Early registration will be open until June 15th 2012.

The Board of AFRILEX (i.e. the African Association for Lexicography), in conjunction with the Bureau of the WAT, decided to turn Lexikos into an open access journal. Starting with Volume 21 (2011), Lexikos is now freely available to all online readers. Back issues are being added as they are digitized and indexed. Please visit:

http://lexikos.journals.ac.za/

Did you know that Wikipedia has a List of Lexicographers?

The conference will be held from 25th – 28th July, 2012, and it is organised by the Saxonian Academy of Sciences in Leipzig and the Department of Indo-European Studies of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

The cultural programme of the conference includes:

• Guided tour of the manuscript section of the Thuringian university and state library
• Dinner with programme in the historical Rosensäle (meaning “Rosenhalls”)
• Excursion to Weimar, the town of the German classical period, or to Leipzig, place of residence of the Saxonian Academy (28th July)

Conference Website.

The Center for Research in Terminology and Translation (CRTT) of the University of Lyon is organizing an international conference on neology in specialized languages which will take place in Lyon on 2-3 July 2012. The aim of the conference is to bring together linguists interested in discussing the following aspects of neology in specialized communication:

the methods and tools which are used to detect new terms and concepts,
the importance of written and oral corpora to detect new terms,
the methods and tools which are used to measure and evaluate the implantation of new terms in a specialized language and their circulation to other specialized languages,
the influence of language policies on the implantation and circulation of neologisms,
the diachronic evolution of neologisms,
the treatment of neologisms by general-purpose and specialized dictionaries.

The Batumi II International Symposium in Lexicography will be held in Batumi, Georgia from 18 May until 20 May 2012. See: LinguistList.

Grupo de lexicografía offers the following interesting information to lexicographers:

Diccionario Coruña de la Lengua Española
I Congreso Internacional de Lexicografía Hispánica
Revista de Lexicografía
Bibliografía temática de la lexicografía

The third international New Approaches in English Historical Lexis Symposium (HEL-LEX3) will be held in Southern Finland at the Tvärminne Zoological Station from March 7-10, 2012.

Plenarists

Professor Lynda Mugglestone (Pembroke college, Oxford),
Dr Philip Durkin, Principal Etymologist of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press,
Professor Michael Adams (University of Indiana, Bloomington).

Papers covering any aspect of English historical lexicography and lexicology, as well as subjects which involve other languages by way of a comparative study are welcome. Please submit an abstract of not more than 1 A4 page to hellex-2012@helsinki.fi not later than Sept 30, 2011.

The HEL-LEX organising committee is anxious to see that a proceedings volume will appear in good time after the conference. To this end, please keep in mind that a call for submission will allow only about three months after the conference to complete papers. As in the past, we will be asking Cascadilla press to do the proceedings, so that, pending their agreement, we advise that you consult their website about citation and presentation style, even at this early stage.

Did you know that you can now search the archive with all articles from previous Euralex congresses? It’s easy: just go to the Publications tab and enter a word in the search field.