# W. Sidney Allen

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English linguist (1918–2004)

For the art critic who sometimes used the pseudonym 'Sidney Allen', see [Sadakichi Hartmann](/source/Sadakichi_Hartmann).

William Sidney Allen FBA Photograph of Allen c.1982, from his obituary in the Proceedings of the British Academy Born (1918-03-18)18 March 1918 London Died 22 April 2004(2004-04-22) (aged 86) Cambridge Occupation Academic Spouses Aenea McCallum ​ ​ (m. 1955; died 1996)​ Diana Stroud ​ (m. 2002)​ Academic background Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge Thesis Linguistic problems and their treatment in antiquity (1948) Doctoral advisor A. J. Beattie Academic work Discipline Classical Philology, Linguistics Sub-discipline Historical linguistics, Sanskrit, Indo-European phonology. Institutions School of Oriental & African Studies, London, Trinity College, Cambridge Notable works Vox Latina (1965); Vox Graeca (1968)

**William Sidney Allen**, [FBA](/source/Fellow_of_the_British_Academy) (18 March 1918 – 22 April 2004),[1] was a British linguist and philologist, best known for his work on [Indo-European](/source/Indo-European_languages) [phonology](/source/Phonology).

## Early life and undergraduate education

Allen was born in north [London](/source/London), the elder son of William Percy Allen, a maintenance engineer in a printing works, and Ethel Pierce, the daughter of a [compositor](/source/Typesetting).[1] From childhood, he was primarily known as 'Sidney', to avoid confusion with his father.[1]

After a year at private school, Allen was educated at a local council school before attending [Christ's Hospital](/source/Christ's_Hospital) on a scholarship.[2] On the advice of his form master, [Derrick Macnutt](/source/Derrick_Somerset_Macnutt) (a fellow Classicist, better known as the crossword compiler 'Ximenes'), he sat the entrance exam to read [Classics](/source/Classics) at [Trinity College, Cambridge](/source/Trinity_College%2C_Cambridge) in 1937, and was awarded a major scholarship. As an undergraduate at Trinity, his teachers included [Harold Walter Bailey](/source/Harold_Walter_Bailey), professor of [Sanskrit](/source/Sanskrit), and N. B. Jopson, later president of the [Philological Society](/source/Philological_Society).[3]

## Military service

The [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War) broke out in September 1939, just a month before the start of what would have been Allen's final year at Cambridge. At the time, Allen and two college friends were on an expedition to [Iceland](/source/Iceland), investigating the [Icelandic language](/source/Icelandic_language), and only barely managed to return to Cambridge in time for the beginning of term.[3]

As a member of the [Officers' Training Corps](/source/Officers'_Training_Corps), he was called up in October 1939, and commissioned in May 1940 into the [Royal Tank Regiment](/source/Royal_Tank_Regiment).[4] On the strength of his brief experience of Iceland and its language, he was posted to the island, now [occupied by British forces](/source/Allied_occupation_of_Iceland), as an intelligence officer and winter warfare instructor.[4] In the spring of 1942, he was placed in command of a photographic unit of the [Intelligence Corps](/source/Intelligence_Corps_(United_Kingdom)), involved in planning the [Allied invasion of Normandy](/source/Operation_Overlord).[5] From shortly after [D-Day](/source/Normandy_landings) in 1944 until the [armistice](/source/Victory_in_Europe_Day) of 1945, he served with the [British 2nd Army](/source/Second_Army_(United_Kingdom)), including the [Battle of the Bulge](/source/Battle_of_the_Bulge).[5]

While awaiting demobilisation in 1945, Allen was tasked with organising the escort of sixteen German generals, including [Hasso von Manteuffel](/source/Hasso_von_Manteuffel), to London to be interrogated.[5]

## Academic career

Rather than studying for the third and final year (Part II) of the [Classical Tripos](/source/Classical_Tripos), Allen opted to take a 'War BA' and begin doctoral study in 1945, under the philologist [A. J. Beattie](/source/Arthur_James_Beattie). He submitted his [Ph.D.](/source/Ph.D.) thesis in 1948 under the title ‘Linguistic problems and their treatment in antiquity’, examined by [John Brough](/source/John_Brough_(orientalist)) of the [School of Oriental & African Studies](/source/School_of_Oriental_%26_African_Studies) and [Peter Noble](/source/Peter_Noble_(academic)) of the [University of Aberdeen](/source/University_of_Aberdeen).

Shortly after submitting his Ph.D., Allen was appointed lecturer in [Phonetics](/source/Phonetics) at SOAS, a position he held until 1951, when he requested that it be converted into a lectureship in [Comparative Linguistics](/source/Comparative_linguistics), under which name he held it until 1955.[6] Throughout 1952, he conducted fieldwork in [Rajasthan](/source/Rajasthan) into the dialects of the [Rajasthani languages](/source/Rajasthani_languages), hoping to find data of use in reconstructing [Proto-Indo-European](/source/Proto-Indo-European_language) phonology, and also conducted important work into the structure of the [Caucasian](/source/Caucasus) language [Abaza](/source/Abaza_language), later described as 'epoch-making'.[7] A close co-worker during his time at SOAS was [R. H. Robins](/source/R._H._Robins), a noted disciple of [John Rupert Firth](/source/John_Rupert_Firth).[8]

From 1955 until his retirement in 1982, Allen held the position of Professor of Comparative Philology at the University of Cambridge, where he worked closely with [John Chadwick](/source/John_Chadwick).[9] From 1962, he was elected a fellow of [Selwyn College](/source/Selwyn_College%2C_Cambridge), where he held the post of Director of Studies in German.[10] He was elected a Fellow of the [British Academy](/source/British_Academy) in 1971.

In 1969, along with Michael Black of [Cambridge University Press](/source/Cambridge_University_Press), Allen founded the *Cambridge Studies in Linguistics* series of [monographs](/source/Monograph). He was chairman of its editorial board until his retirement from Cambridge in 1982.

He was influential in the development of several important figures in British linguistics, including [George Hewitt](/source/George_Hewitt_(linguist)), [John Lyons](/source/John_Lyons_(linguist)), [John C. Wells](/source/John_C._Wells), and [Geoffrey Horrocks](/source/Geoffrey_Horrocks_(linguist)), who held Allen's former Cambridge position as Professor of Comparative Philology.[11][12] He was also influential in developing linguistics as a distinct discipline in 20th-century Britain, lobbying the General Board of the [University of Cambridge](/source/University_of_Cambridge) to set up linguistics positions in the 1960s, and in helping to found the section for linguistics (subsequently renamed 'Linguistics and Philology') at the British Academy in 1985.[13] The University of Cambridge has a prize named after him, awarded for distinguished performance by a linguistics undergraduate.[14]

## Personal life

During his time at SOAS, Allen met Aenea McCallum, the editorial secretary of the School’s journal, the *[Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies](/source/Bulletin_of_the_School_of_Oriental_%26_African_Studies)*, who had previously studied English and Modern Languages at the University of Aberdeen and served in [counterintelligence](/source/Counterintelligence) during the Second World War. The two were married from 1955 until Aenea's death in 1996.

In 1995, Allen underwent a [hip replacement](/source/Hip_replacement), after which he required at-home care; after Aenea's death, he met Diana Stroud, one of his part-time carers.[15] The two married in 2002. He had no children.

Allen's younger brother, David (born 1927), was a local government officer with the [Greater London Council](/source/Greater_London_Council).

## Selected works

- *Phonetics in Ancient India* (1953)

- *On the Linguistic Study of Languages* (inaugural lecture) (1957)

- *Sandhi* (1962)

- *Vox Latina* (1965, 2nd edition 1978)

- *Vox Graeca* (1968, 3rd edition 1987)

- *Accent and Rhythm* (1973)

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20063_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20063_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20063_1-2) [Lyons 2006](#CITEREFLyons2006), p. 3.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20064_2-0)** [Lyons 2006](#CITEREFLyons2006), p. 4.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20065_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20065_3-1) [Lyons 2006](#CITEREFLyons2006), p. 5.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20066_4-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20066_4-1) [Lyons 2006](#CITEREFLyons2006), p. 6.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20067_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20067_5-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons20067_5-2) [Lyons 2006](#CITEREFLyons2006), p. 7.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons200611_6-0)** [Lyons 2006](#CITEREFLyons2006), p. 11.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons200614_7-0)** [Lyons 2006](#CITEREFLyons2006), p. 14.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrownLaw200218_8-0)** [Brown & Law 2002](#CITEREFBrownLaw2002), p. 18.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrownLaw200214_9-0)** [Brown & Law 2002](#CITEREFBrownLaw2002), p. 14.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons200617_10-0)** [Lyons 2006](#CITEREFLyons2006), p. 17.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrownLaw200220–25_11-0)** [Brown & Law 2002](#CITEREFBrownLaw2002), pp. 20–25.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["Professor Geoff Horrocks"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120222082128/http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/faculty/staff-bios/academic-research-staff/geoff_horrocks/). Archived from [the original](http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/faculty/staff-bios/academic-research-staff/geoff_horrocks/) on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBrownLaw200222–25_13-0)** [Brown & Law 2002](#CITEREFBrownLaw2002), pp. 22–25.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** ["Chapter Xii : Trust Emoluments - Funds, Studentships, Prizes, Lectureships, Etc"](https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/2011/chapter12-section2.html#heading2-7).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELyons200622_15-0)** [Lyons 2006](#CITEREFLyons2006), p. 22.

## Bibliography

- Brown, E.K.; Law, Vivien (2002). *Linguistics in Britain: Personal Histories*. Oxford: Blackwell.

- [Lyons, Sir John](/source/John_Lyons_(linguist)) (2006). ["William Sidney Allen: 1918-2004"](https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1773/138p003.pdf) (PDF). *Proceedings of the British Academy*. **138**: 3–36.

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