14 Facts About Wolf Leslau

Wolf Leslau was a scholar of Semitic languages and one of the foremost authorities on Semitic languages of Ethiopia.

Wolf Leslau was orphaned by the age of 10, and was raised by his brother, and received a yeshiva education.

Wolf Leslau then went to the Sorbonne to study under Marcel Cohen.

Wolf Leslau was later moved to Camp des Milles, a concentration camp near Aix-en-Provence.

Wolf Leslau settled in New York City, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship to continue his studies of the Semitic languages in Ethiopia.

Wolf Leslau traveled throughout the country, recording endangered Ethiopian languages.

For one language, Gafat, Wolf Leslau was able to locate only four speakers.

Wolf Leslau was instrumental in establishing the Department of Near Eastern Studies and the Center for Near East Studies.

Wolf Leslau specialized in previously unrecorded and unstudied Semitic languages of Ethiopia.

In 1965 Wolf Leslau received the Haile Selassie Prize for Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa from Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.

Wolf Leslau held the position of professor emeritus at UCLA until his death at the age of 100.

Wolf Leslau remained active in research and writing until his death.

Wolf Leslau learned to use a Macintosh computer at the age of 80.

Wolf Leslau died at a nursing home in Fullerton, California, in 2006.