Pierre de Villiers Pienaar

Pierre de Villiers Pienaar (1904–1978) was a South African Afrikaans academic and Professor at University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and later at University of Pretoria, who pioneered speech language therapy in South Africa and specialising in audiology and lexicography as well as being an Afrikaans author. As lexicographer in 1973, he was part of the group of authors that established the Afrikaans Explanatory Dictionary alongside Prof M.S.B. Kritzinger and Prof F.J. Labuschagne.

Biography Early life and education Pierre de Villiers Pienaar was born on 11 August 1904 on the farm Elandsfontein, Gatsrand (currently in the Fochville district), that was destroyed in The Anglo-Boer War during the scorched earth policy campaign.

Academic career Pienaar taught at several schools on the Witwatersrand and Nylstroom (1926–1927 and on his return to South Africa, 1930–1932). He developed this section of the Department of African Languages to such an extent that, in 1944, it became the separate Department of Phonetics, Linguistics and Logopedics with Pienaar as head and also director of the associated Speech, Voice and Hearing Clinic. Through his efforts the University of the Witwatersrand in 1948, instituted a four-year degree course with Phonetics and Logopedics as major subjects, the first of its kind in South Africa. To benefit from his vast experience, the University of Pretoria continued to retain his services by appointing him as temporary lecturer in 1970. He held this appointment as Professor Emeritus in the department for two years, and became honorary professor for the period 1973–1974. In 1973 he opened a private consulting room in Pretoria for the rehabilitation of persons with voice disorders. In his retirement he was still engaged in the field of Afrikaans phonetics. He was appointed head of the speech archives sponsored by the Department of National Education and the Human Sciences Research Council. Among his students who majored in phonetics, three have become heads of university departments of Phonetics or African Languages in South Africa (L. W. Langham, D. T. Cole, and E. O. J. Westphall). He was cremated and his ashes scattered on his beloved family farm, Elandsfontein.