It was with great sadness that we learned of the death on August 14 of our former colleague Gérard Diffloth, who was a member of the École française d'Extrême-Orient from 2000 to 2004, and then an associate researcher at the EFEO from 2004 to 2020.

Born in Châteauroux on February 13, 1939, Gérard Diffloth had been living in Cambodia, in Siem Reap, since the last years of 1990, but had been hospitalized in Surin, Thailand, where he died.

Gérard Diffloth was undoubtedly the greatest specialist in the languages of the Môn-Khmer group, where his work is universally respected. Gérard Diffloth originally trained as a mathematician, but he also graduated from the École Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille (ESJ Lille).

Before joining the EFEO, Gérard Diffloth had a long career in the United States, as Assistant Professor in the Department of Ethno-musicology at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, from 1968 to 1972; Professor of Linguistics at the University of Chicago, Michigan, from 1973 to 1986; and Professor of Linguistics at Cornell University, New York, from 1988 to 1996.

In Cambodia, Gérard Diffloth maintained close relations with the Linguistics Department of the Royal Academy, and all the Cambodian and French colleagues who had the chance to meet him benefited from his exceptional and generous erudition.

To his children Natalie and Antoine, and to his assistant of over twenty years, Mrs Wongjaroen Somruan (Som), who was also his luminous companion, we offer our most sincere condolences.