Occupation Linguist Parents Alfred Henry Williamson Died January 3, 2005, Brazil | Name Kay Williamson Religion Quaker | |
 | ||
Born January 26, 1935 ( 1935-01-26 ) Alma mater St Hilda's College, Oxford; BA in English, 1956, MA, 1960; Yale University, Ph.D., 1964 Known for "The mother of Nigerian linguistics," authority on the Ijaw languages Organization University of Ibadan, University of Port Harcourt Books A grammar of the Kolokum, Murder at the Starlight, Ghostly Whispers, Incident at the Pink Beach Ho, Time After Time | ||
Kay Williamson (1935 – January 3, 2005, Brazil), born Ruth Margaret Williamson was a linguist who specialised in the study of African languages, particularly those of the Niger Delta in Nigeria, where she lived for nearly fifty years. She has been called "The Mother of Nigerian Linguistics." Her many publications include a grammar and dictionary of the Ijo language, a dictionary of Igbo and numerous articles on diverse topics. She is also notable for proposing the Pan-Nigerian alphabet.
Kay Williamson was known for her "concern for social responsibility in linguistics."
She devoted a substantial part of her time to the Rivers Readers Project, an exercise designed to introduce reading and writing in primary schools in about 20 dialects or languages in the predominantly Ijo-speaking area. As a byproduct, several books (including primers, readers, teachers' notes, spelling manuals, and collection of folk-tales) were compiled by Kay and her collaborators.
It did not bother her that such works do not earn plaudits as academic publications. She was totally convinced that a linguist must help speakers of the languages of her research to produce texts in their languages.
Her unpublished work is being edited by Roger Blench.