Abraham , Roy Clive , 1890-1963 , linguist

Roy Clive Abraham was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1890, but was educated in England and Germany. His first degree was in oriental languages (Arabic and Persian) though he also studied Ethiopic at that time. During World War I, he served in the British Army in Arabia, where he learned Hindustani, and then became a member of the Nigerian Administrative Service from 1924-1944, the last six years of which he spent in language research. His first independent research was on Bolenci, and later he assisted George Bargery on the publication of a Hausa dictionary. He was a lecturer in Amharic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1948-1951.

His published works include The Grammar of Tiv, The Principles of Hausa, The Principles of Idoma, The Principles of Somali and a Dictionary of Modern Yoruba. He also worked on Igbo, but his death in 1963 precluded the publication of his grammar and dictionary in that language.