Maurice Durand (linguist)

[1][2][3] His father, Gustave Durand, was chief translator of Annamese at the Palais de Justice, Hanoi; Gustave was from Provence and Maurice's mother was from Kien An.

He studied in France and married a Belgian violinist named Sylvie Durand.

In 1946 he returned to Vietnam to teach at and then direct the École française d'Extrême-Orient.

On his return to France he taught Vietnamese at the École pratique des Hautes Études.

[4] He died in Paris in 1966 and bequeathed his, and his father's, collection of publications, transliterations, photographs, research notes, and microfilm to Yale University, where they are now held in 121 boxes at the Sterling Memorial Library.

Copy of a poem in both Chữ Nôm and the Vietnamese alphabet from Durand's collection of manuscripts