Sunday, June 20, 2021

Getatchew Haile 1931-2021

SAD NEWS: Getatchew Haile, renowned Ethiopian philologist and beloved St. John's professor, dies at 90 (Star Tribune via MSN).
Getatchew Haile was two very different people in one body.

One version of Haile, who died this month at 90, was an eminent scholar at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at St. John's University in St. Joseph, Minn. In his field of philology, the study of the historical development of languages, Haile worked in eight languages, from ancient Hebrew and Arabic to ancient Ethiopian tongues such as Amharic and Ge'ez. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship — the "genius grant" — Haile studied and cataloged manuscripts from the early days of Christianity in Ethiopia, dating back some one and a half millennia.

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The Manuscript Man, Father Columba Stewart, is quoted. And read on for the other version of Professor Haile. Cross-file under Ethiopic Watch.

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