Henry Courtenay Fenn, more commonly known as H. C. Fenn, (February 26, 1894 – July 1978) was an American sinologist and architect of Yale University's Chinese language program.
Henry Courtenay Fenn | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 26, 1894 |
| Died | July 22, 1978 (aged 84) |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | H. C. Fenn |
| Occupation | sinologist |
| Known for | architect of Yale University's Chinese language program |
| Notable work | "Yale system" of Chinese grammar |
| Spouse |
Constance Latimer Sargent
(m. 1925) |
| Parents |
|
Life
editH. C. Fenn was the son of the Reverend Dr. Courtenay Hughes Fenn, missionary to China and compiler of The Five Thousand Dictionary, and his wife Alice Holstein May Fenn, and grew up in Peking. He married Constance Latimer Sargent on January 27, 1925.
Career
editFenn was active in the "Yale system" of Chinese grammar developed by himself, George Kennedy, Gardner Tewksbury, Wang Fangyu and others working in the Institute of Far Eastern Languages (IFEL) at Yale in the late 1940s. He was director of IFEL from 1952 to 1962. After his mandatory retirement from Yale, he set up a Chinese language department at Dartmouth and spent three years at Washington University in St. Louis.
Selected works
edit- Songs from Hypnia, Henry C. Fenn, 1915
- A Syllabus of the History of Chinese Civilization and Culture, by L. C. Goodrich and H. C. Fenn, 1929, 1941
- Beginning Chinese, by John De Francis, edited by Henry C. Fenn and George A. Kennedy, 1946
- Chinese characters easily confused, Henry C. Fenn, 1953
- Chinese dialogues, edited by Henry C. Fenn & Pao-che`n Lee, 1953
- Speak Mandarin, by Henry C. Fenn and Gardner M. Tewksbury, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1967
- "Introduction to Chinese Sentence Structure," by Henry C. Fenn, date unknown.
Sources
edit- Chinese Language and Culture: Remembering Henry C. Fenn, Yale University