Hansol Hyun Bok Lee

Hyun Bok Lee (; born October 26, 1936 ) is a South Korean linguist.

Biography

Lee was born on October 26, 1936, in Boryeong, Korea, Empire of Japan. He graduated with a bachelor's degree and master's degree in linguistics from Seoul National University (SNU) in 1959 and 1961 respectively. He planned to study abroad in the United States and had even received a Fulbright Scholarship to do so, but decided against this due to his mother dying from illness around this time. He instead went to the United Kingdom, where he received a master's degree and PhD in linguistics from University College London (UCL) in 1965. After doing research elsewhere, he returned to UCL as a research fellow from 1969 to 1970. He returned to South Korea and SNU in 1970, where he was appointed an assistant professor. From 1977 to 1978, he was a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo. He was a visiting professor at UCL from 1985 to 1986. In 1999, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He retired from SNU in 2002 and was made a professor emeritus. In 2001, he developed a Hangul orthography for Lahu. The script saw limited adoption, with missionaries preferring to use the Latin script to transcribe their language.