Henderson, Eugenie Jane Andrina

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 PP MS 45
Held at	: School of Oriental and African Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/home.html ›
Full title	: Henderson, Eugenie Jane Andrina
Date(s)	: Created 1878-1988
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 105 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Henderson | Eugenie Jane Andrina | 1914-1989 | Professor of Phonetics

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Eugenie Jane Andrina Henderson was born on 2 October 1914. After leaving school she went to University College, London to read English, where she later studied phonetics under Daniel Jones. Although she specialised in phonetics and phonology, she also made an invaluable contribution to the field of general linguistics, and advanced the study of many South East Asian languages, notably Karen, Khasi, Thai and Chin. She married George Meier in 1941.

Her career at the School of Oriental and African Studies started in 1944, following a short spell working for the Ministry of Economic Welfare during the Second World War. She taught under Professor Firth, initially teaching Japanese to armed services personnel. She researched the subject of prosodic phonology, a theory advocated by Firth, and published several significant works in this field. She stayed on at SOAS after the end of the War, lecturing in the languages of South East Asia, and became Head of Department in 1960. During the six years of her appointment, she furthered the development of the department by introducing the study options of combining language courses with social anthropology or history. In 1966 she was appointed Head of the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics, during which time she undertook much of her work on prosodic phonology. She became an honorary fellow of the School in 1985 and a Fellow of the British Academy in the following year.

Eugenie Henderson's published works included Tiddim Chin: a descriptive analysis of two texts (1965), The Domain of Phonetics (1965) and The Indispensable Foundation: a Selection from the Writings of Henry Sweet (1971). Her magnum opus was the compilation of material for a dictionary of Karen, although she died on 27 July 1989 before the work was published. In addition to having many of her own works published, Eugenie Henderson assisted in the publication of the works of other scholars like Gordon Luce, who wrote Pre-Pagan Burma.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1878-1988, of Eugenie Henderson, comprising collected language, phonetics and linguistics material; conference papers and lecture notes from major linguistic conferences that she attended; socio-linguistic material; and papers from the societies and organisations to which she belonged.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
Linguistic material in and about a large number of languages from around the world.

System of arrangement:

As far as possible, papers have been classified according to Dr. Henderson's own system. They are arranged into 7 categories, comprising: language material (arranged alphabetically under individual language names or the language group name); phonetics papers (arranged alphabetically by author, with Henderson's papers at the beginning); linguistics material (arranged alphabetically by author, with Henderson's papers at the beginning and specific linguistic topics at the end); conference papers/lecture notes (arranged in chronological order); socio-linguistic material (arranged according to topic); societies/organisations (arranged alphabetically by society/organisation: Britain-Burma Society, British Academy, Cambridge University Press, Fellows of University College, Henry Sweet Society, International Phonetic Association, Linguistic Association of Great Britain, Oxford University Press, Philological Society); miscellaneous.

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated in 1989.

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
16 May 2000