David Thomas (1930–2006)

By Ken Gregerson

Colleague (and President Emeritus SIL)

Scholarly contributor

David Thomas takes his distinguished place in the pantheon of leading scholars in Mon-Khmer linguistics. It may be difficult to appreciate now in the twenty first century just how little was known about this Southeast Asian family of languages when Dave and his wife Dorothy (Dot) arrived in Vietnam in the 1950’s to begin their research. Respected scholars were still, following Pater Wilhelm Schmidt, classifying Chamic languages as Mon-Khmer— an issue laid to rest by Richard Pittman in 1959. The sub-groupings of Mon-Khmer languages were vague and had little empirical basis. Thomas, acknowledging the great French scholarly tradition in Indochina and celebrating especially the ground-breaking work of Haudricourt, set about with his colleagues both to study in detail and to classify the many Montagnard groups in the region. Dave, along with Prof. Nguyen Dinh Hoa, formed the Linguistic Circle of Saigon, which in turn launched the journal Mon-Khmer Studies in 1964. This unique journal was a ‘labor of love’ which has over the years had several homes (now at Mahidol University in Bangkok), but would surely have died on the vine without Dave’s single-handed persistence.

David Thomas was a student of the classic comparative linguistic method, having studied with some of the best in the field at the University of Pennsylvania. He accurately judged that while reconstructing proto consonants in Mon-Khmer would turn out to be relatively straightforward, the convoluted evolution of register-related vocalic systems in the daughter languages would pose a huge challenge. He was right forty years ago and he is still right today!

An intensely practical man, Dave was also very curious-minded. He was interested in explanations, theory and modeling of empirical discoveries. Early on he explored the notion of (the now quaint) Transformational Paradigm as a way of looking at syntax from new perspectives. Historically, he sought to understand the possible Chamic migration effects that appeared to have ‘split’ South Bahnaric groups from North Bahnaric ones. He was keenly interested in explanations for the variegated manifestations of Mon-Khmer phonological register systems.

Complete field worker

In the spirit of his mentors Kenneth Pike and Richard Pittman, David Thomas committed himself to a holistic approach to his work. Dave and Dorothy Thomas worked on all fronts — linguistics, literacy, anthropology and translation of a variety of literature. In each of these separate disciplines Dave and Dot carried on research and published an extensive body of papers, books, educational manuals and Scriptures in the Chrau language in Vietnam. This habit of scholarly well-roundedness was repeated again in a couple of further decades of work with the Northern Khmer in Thailand.

Mentor

David Thomas was instinctively an academic. And he had a knack for encouraging intellectual curiosity in others. He could be an unstinting critic to those who needed (and could handle) it and he was an equally patient encourager to those who required a boost instead of a boot! Dave read hundreds of linguistics manuscripts raising fledgling efforts to professional standard and further sharpening the insights of even the most advanced ones. He was a meticulous editor and an activist advocate that every one of his colleagues, whether a new field worker or an accomplished PhD, could get their paper published in some appropriate academic outlet. Besides being a one-on-one consultant in the field, David Thomas was an effective teacher in the classroom. Perhaps his most lasting university contribution will be the role he and Dot played in spawning new generations of Thai scholars when they helped to lay the academic foundations at Mahidol University for the Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development. In this way the circle of Dave’s influence continues to spread in service among the ethnic groups of Southeast Asia.

Professor Dr. Suwilai Premsrirat

Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development
Mahidol University

We are grateful to Ajarn Dr. David Thomas and his wife, Ajarn Dorothy, who joined the Mahidol staff members in building a solid foundation of linguistics that emphasizes the study of languages of ethnic minorities and field linguistics in Thailand (and also South East Asia). Ajarn David contributed significantly to the young linguist’s appreciation of linguistic research on ethnic minorities and their ability to handle complex problems with confidence.