John William Alan Okell OBE (1934 – 3 August 2020) was a British linguist notable for his expertise in the field of Burma studies.

Life

Okell was born in Brighton and was educated at The Queen's College, University of Oxford, where he read Literae Humaniores ("Greats"). In 1959, an inquiry about language courses through the British Foreign Office led to his joining the School of Oriental and African Studies as a trainee lecturer in Burmese: "They were looking for someone to be taught Burmese. I applied to the program as I was interested in languages and they chose me and trained me." At SOAS, he studied Burmese with Hla Pe and Anna J. Allott, phonetics with R. K. Sprigg and N. C. Scott, and general linguistics with R. H. Robins and Eugénie Henderson. After eighteen months of study, he travelled to Burma, where he spent a year (1960–1961) immersing himself in the country's language and culture. He returned for another year-long visit in 1969. He retired from SOAS in 1999, although he remained a research associate in the Department of South East Asia. Following his retirement, he continued his teaching of Burmese through short courses convened in a variety of places, most notably Chiang Mai and Yangon. In 2014, in the Queen's Birthday Honours, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to UK/Burma relations. In 2016, SOAS awarded him an honorary doctorate. He was the creator of the Avalaser Burmese computer font and the Chairman of the Britain-Burma Society. He died on 3 August 2020 at the age of eighty-six.

Notable works

Books

Papers