Sidney Herbert Ray (May 28, 1858 – January 1, 1939) was a comparative and descriptive linguist specialized in Melanesian languages. In 1892 he read an important paper The languages of British New Guinea to the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists in which he established for the first time the distinction between the Austronesian and Papuan languages of New Guinea. Although he never had an academic position, and was employed his entire life as a school teacher, S. H. Ray was an energetic fieldworker, and participated in a number of expeditions.
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