Michel Ferlus

Michel Ferlus
Michel Ferlus with Vi Khăm Mun, a scholar of Tương Dương, Nghệ An, Vietnam, at Mr. Mun's home. Date: 01/2014.
Born	1935
Fields	historical phonology
Institutions	CNRS
Known for	Re-discovering the Lai Pao (Lai Paw) writing system, unique to Tương Dương, Việt Nam; making seminal contributions to the historical phonology of Southeast Asian languages
Influences	André-Georges Haudricourt, André Martinet, George Cœdès, André Leroi-Gourhan, Roger Bastide

Michel Ferlus is a French linguist specialized in the historical phonology of languages of Southeast Asia. In addition to phonological systems, he also studies writing systems, in particular the evolution of Indic scripts in Southeast Asia.

Michel Ferlus was born in 1935. He followed classes in ethnology and prehistory taught by André Leroi-Gourhan; in 'primitive religions' by Roger Bastide; in linguistics by André Martinet; and in Southeast Asian languages and history by Georges Cœdès. He worked in Laos as a teacher from 1961 to 1968. This allowed him to do fieldwork on languages of Laos, including Hmong and Yao (Hmong-Mien family), Khmu/Khamou and Lamet (Austroasiatic/Mon-Khmer), as well as Phu Noi/Phou-Noy (Sino-Tibetan). He became a researcher at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1968. He mainly did fieldwork in Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) in the 1980s, studying Wa, Lawa, Palaung, Mon and Nyah Kur; in Vietnam and Laos in the 1990s, studying Viet-Muong (also known as Vietic) languages, and the Tai languages and writing systems of northern and central areas of Vietnam, including the Lai Pao writing system of Vietnam, which was close to falling into oblivion. He has published extensively about his findings on numerous languages of Laos, Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, and Vietnam, in journals such as Mon-Khmer Studies, Cahiers de Linguistique - Asie Orientale and Diachronica.