<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Like many of us here, I am shocked by the sudden news about Darrell Tryon.<br><br>Darrell was one of the pioneers of Vanuatu linguistics. <br>
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</div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">When the next generation began working in Vanuatu, his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Hebrides-languages-classification-linguistics/dp/085883152X/ref=la_B001HPMZNM_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1368693834&sr=1-6" target="_blank">1976</a> book was the only source of data for most languages, and in some parts of the archipelago this remains true today. Many years later, he would tell me his memories of fieldwork in various islands of the then New Hebrides. I've been recently inspired by his insights on dialect chaining and social networks in Vanuatu (Tryon <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=Lm9sq0RYOlYC&pg=PA170&dq=tryon+vanuatu+arts+%22chaining+of+language+subgroups%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=OaqUUZaFB4-ShgeJ7IAQ&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=tryon%20vanuatu%20arts%20%22chaining%20of%20language%20subgroups%22&f=false">1996</a>).<br>
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</div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">After his 1976 book, Darrell later published another massive work on the languages of the Solomon Islands (Tryon & Hackman <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Solomon-Islands-Languages-Classification-Linguistics/dp/0858832925" target="_blank">1983</a>). On the occasion of working in the Solomons, he was especially intrigued in the Santa Cruz archipelago: his publications (his “<a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=xOlI8czLshIC&lpg=PA611&dq=%22Language%20contact%20and%20contact-induced%20language%20change%20in%20the%20Eastern%20Outer%20Islands%2C%20Solomon%20Islands%22&hl=fr&pg=PA611#v=onepage&q=%22Language%20contact%20and%20contact-induced%20language%20change%20in%20the%20Eastern%20Outer%20Islands,%20Solomon%20Islands%22&f=false" target="_blank">Eastern Outer islands</a>”) are still today the main source of our knowledge on the remote languages of Vanikoro and Utupua.<br>
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</div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Darrell published also on Bislama – whether in the form of a teach-yourself <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bislama-introduction-national-language-Linguistics/dp/0858833611" target="_blank">manual</a>, or of scholarly publications on its historical origins (<a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=Nvvt2S9iqiMC&lpg=PP1&hl=fr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">Tryon & Charpentier 2004</a>).<br>
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</div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">He was the (co)editor of a number of important publications on Pacific languages and cultures. This includes the massive <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=U5EbSnWd-18C&lpg=PP1&hl=fr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">Comparative Austronesian Dictionary</a> he edited in 1995, but also <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?hl=fr&lr=&id=9ZofY1G1DZkC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=darrell+tryon&ots=rB8Ckzs6ja&sig=1oNQy7AZD0O3gt_lUGl347X5Le0#v=onepage&q=darrell%20tryon&f=false" target="_blank">Language contact and change in the Austronesian world </a>(1994); <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=9uyuHAXBuRkC&lpg=PP1&hl=fr&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">The Austronesians</a> (1995); <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=glU0vte5gSkC&lpg=PP1&hl=fr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas</a> (1996); the beautiful <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=Lm9sq0RYOlYC&lpg=PP1&hl=fr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">Arts of Vanuatu</a> (1996); <a href="http://books.google.fr/books/about/The_Boy_from_Bundaberg.html?id=XLFiAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Boy from Bundaberg</a> (2001); and just recently, <a href="http://epress.anu.edu.au/titles/oceanic-encounters">Oceanic Encounters</a> (2009).<br>
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</div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></span></div><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">T</span><div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">he breadth of his i</span></div>
<span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">nterests and publications was impressive, and went </span><div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">well </span></div><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">beyond Vanuatu or the Solomons – including work on the languages of the Loyalty Islands (<a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=NkoHAQAAIAAJ&hl=fr&source=gbs_similarbooks" target="_blank">Iaai</a>, <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=JMRwAAAAIAAJ&hl=fr&source=gbs_book_similarbooks" target="_blank">Nengone</a>, <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=JFIHAQAAIAAJ&hl=fr&source=gbs_book_similarbooks" target="_blank">Drehu</a>); on <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=PdqxF5KgZzIC&lpg=PR7&ots=EZ0FpEB9EA&dq=darrell%20tryon&lr&hl=fr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">Tahitian</a>, <a href="http://books.google.fr/books/about/The_language_of_Easter_Island.html?id=Z9BkAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y" target="_blank">Rapa Nui</a>; on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/introduction-Maranungku-Northern-Australia-Linguistics/dp/B0006C6XR6" target="_blank">Maranungku</a> and</span><div class="gmail_default" style="display:inline">
<span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"> the</span></div><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"> <a href="http://books.google.fr/books/about/Daly_family_languages_Australia.html?id=AFpxAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y" target="_blank">Daly languages</a> of Northern Australia; and <a href="https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/tryon-dt#publications" target="_blank">many others</a>.<br>
</span><div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">On a more personal note, I have fond memories of the first weeks I ever spent in Australia and Vanuatu, back in 1997. Darrell was kind enough to pick me up at Canberra airport and set things up for my first stay at the ANU; thanks to him I met Tom Dutton, Stephen Wurm, Malcolm Ross, Andy Pawley – scholars who later played an important role in my life. A week later I was with Darrell again in Port Vila, as he was organising the annual workshop of the Fieldworkers of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre. He was always ready to drive me around, tell me the history of such and such building in Port Vila, or teach me some words of Bislama I was then just learning. <br>
Even my first hours of fieldwork were spent with him: I became his field assistant for a couple of days, collecting ethnobotanical vocabulary in a few languages of southern Espiritu Santo – including the endangered Araki, which was to become a longer story for me. Darrell always had the right tip and advice at the right moment, and was always kind with everyone. <br>
<br>I owe him a lot, and will miss his presence.<br><br></span></div><div class="gmail_extra"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Alex.<br></span><br></div></div></div>-- <br><span style="color:rgb(56,118,29)"><span style><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font size="1"><span style="color:rgb(69,129,142)">Alex François<br>
<a href="http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/membres/francois.htm" target="_blank">LACITO-CNRS</a>, France<br><a href="http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/people/personal/frana_ling.php" target="_blank">Australian National University</a>, Canberra<br>
<a href="http://alex.francois.free.fr" target="_blank">Personal homepage</a></span></font></span></span></span><br>
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