Thomas Oden Lambdin

American linguist (1927–2020)

Thomas Oden Lambdin (October 31, 1927 – May 8, 2020) was an American linguist and scholar of the Semitic and Egyptian languages.^[1] He received his Ph.D. in 1952 from the Johns Hopkins University Department of Near Eastern Studies, where his advisor was William Foxwell Albright; his dissertation was on "Egyptian Loanwords and Transcriptions in the Ancient Semitic Languages."^[2] He was appointed as an associate professor of Semitic Languages at Harvard University in 1964.^[3] He retired from Harvard in 1983 and served as Professor Emeritus until his death.^[4] He was admired not only for his research^[5] and his "tireless teaching",^[6] but for the quality of his introductory textbooks on Biblical Hebrew, Coptic, Ge'ez and Gothic language. His Festschrift, Working with No Data: Semitic and Egyptian Studies Presented to Thomas O. Lambdin (ed. David M. Golomb and Susan T. Hollis; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1987) includes a full bibliography of his publications, as well as chapters by John Huehnergard and Richard J. Clifford about their experiences as his students^[6]

Works

• Lambdin, Thomas O. (1958). "The Bivalence of Coptic Eta and Related Problems in the Vocalization of Egyptian". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 17 (3): 177–193. doi:10.1086/371466. S2CID 161100821.
• Thomas O. Lambdin. (1971). Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. Darton,Longman and Todd Ltd. ISBN 978-0-232-51369-1.
• Thomas O. Lambdin (1978). Introduction to Classical Ethiopic. Harvard Semitic Studies 24. Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press. ISBN 0-89130-263-8.
• Thomas O. Lambdin (1983). Introduction to Sahidic Coptic. Macon: Mercer University Press.
• Thomas O. Lambdin (2006). Introduction to the Gothic Language. Eugene: Wipf & Stock.

References

1. "Thomas Oden Lambdin". Cremation Society of New Hamphsire. Retrieved May 1, 2021.^{[dead link]}
2. Freedman, David Noel (1975). The Published Works of William Foxwell Albright: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research. p. 223.
3. "Six Linguists Named To Strengthen Dept". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
4. "Semitic Scholar Lambdin To Leave University Post". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
5. "Linguist Lambdin". Colin D Smith blog. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
6. Smith, Mark S. (1989). ""Working With No Data": Semitic and Egyptian Studies Presented to Thomas O. Lambdin". Hebrew Studies. 30: 134–.