Hoofdstuk 1Neogrammatici

Cultuurhistorisch gedeelte

De Neogrammatici (of Junggrammatiker of Neogrammarians) was een groep taalkundigen die

zich manifesteerde aan het eind van de negentiende eeuw. Door de Neogrammatici werd bewust

geprobeerd een breuk te scheppen met de historische taalkunde die zij te weinig

wetenschappelijk gefundeerd vonden. Zij stonden een puur empirische methode voor bij het

onderzoek naar taal en taalverandering.

De eerste aanzet tot deze nieuwe beweging werd gegeven door Karl Brugmann en Berthold

Delbrück. Samen schreven zij de Grundriss der Indogermanischen Sprachen. Als manifest van

de Neogrammatici wordt Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte van Hermann Paul beschouwd. Hij

stelde dat taal alleen onderzocht kon worden als taal die zich voortdurend ontwikkelt. De

Neogrammatici waren dan ook niet zozeer geïnteresseerd in het reconstrueren van oervormen

van taal, maar stelden de taal van het heden als basis van hun studie.

Een belangrijk concept van de Neogrammatici was de klankwet: talen ontwikkelden zich volgens

wetmatige bewegingen en als het scheen dat er uitzonderingen plaatsvonden dan was dat te

verklaren door de wetmatige wijze waarop die uitzonderingen tot stand gekomen waren (een

goed voorbeeld van deze denkwijze is de Wet van Verner). Alle taalveranderingen waren dus

wetmatig te verklaren.

De Neogrammatici zijn later bekritiseerd omdat ze te veel gefocust zouden zijn op blinde

taalveranderingsprocessen. Toch hebben de Neogrammatici een grote invloed gehad op de

wetenschap van de taalontwikkeling. Ze formuleerden taalontwikkelingen die later

wetenschappelijk onderzocht en getoetst konden worden.

Unter der Bezeichnung "Junggrammatiker" versteht man eine linguistische Schule, die sich Ende der siebziger Jahre des 19. Jahrhunderts in Leipzig um August Leskien gebildet hatte. Sie wollten der Sprachwissenschaft den Charakter einer exakten Naturwissenschaft verleihen. Die Ausnahmslosigkeit der Lautgesetze war ihre programmatische These. Die Junggrammatiker behaupteten, daß immer, wenn in irgendeiner Sprache oder irgendeinem Dialekt in einem bestimmten Kontext ein phonetischer Wechsel stattfindet, dieser bei allen Benutzern dieser Sprache oder dieses Dialektes in allen Wörtern stattfindet, in denen die Bedingungen für diesen Wechsel gegeben sind.

Alleiniger Faktor, der den Wirkungsbereich eines solchen Wechsels auszuweiten oder einzuengen vermag, ist der Prozess der Analogie. Diese These hat der Sprachwissenschaft großen Nutzen gebracht. Sie verlangt vom Sprachforscher komplettes Untersuchungsmaterial (unter Einbeziehung der Angabe und Erklärung sämtlicher Abweichungen von der Regel) sowie die Aufhellung der phonetischen Wechsel allein durch die Sprachfakten, d. h. durch exakt formulierte Kontextbedingungen für den betreffenden Wechsel.

Die Junggrammatiker erreichten eine Synthese der Errungenschaften der historisch-vergleichenden Sprachwissenschaft des 19. Jahrhunderts und schufen so die Grundlage für deren weitere Entwicklung. Das Hauptwerk von K. Brugmann und B. Delbrück "Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen" (2. Auflage, 5 Bände, 1897 - 1916) hat in einer ganzen Reihe von Fragen bis auf den heutigen Tag seine Aktualität bewahrt. Eine allgemein-linguistische Konzeption der Junggrammatiker hat H. Paul mit den "Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte" (1. Auflage 1880) vorgestellt. In diesem Werk vertrat H. Paul die Auffassung, daß Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Erwägungen ausschließlich Entwicklungsprozesse sind, und daß in Übereinstimmung damit alleiniger wissenschaftlicher Zugang zur Sprache das historische Herangehen ist. Weil nun aber die Existenz der Sprache in der Psyche der Individuen lokalisiert ist, suchte er in psychischen Besonderheiten der Sprachträger und in der Geschichte der individuellen Spracherfahrung die Ursachen für alle Veränderungen der Sprache. Dies führte zur Ablehnung der Sprache von allgemeinen, (als) durch die Erfahrung nichtbestätigter Abstraktionen und weckte aber gleichzeitig das Interesse für die Dialektologie und für die Sprache der Kinder.

Resultat der konsequenten Anwendung der Methode der Junggrammatiker war der extreme Atomismus (das Interesse für die konkreten Sprechakte der einzelnen Individuen) und für die einzelnen Details (das Konzentrieren auf die Beobachtung der Sprachfakten mit der ausdrücklichen Abneigung gegenüber Abstraktionen und Verallgemeinerungen). Die Unzulänglichkeiten und Mängel in der Konzeption der Junggrammatiker wurden früh erkannt. Die dialektologischen Untersuchungen haben die Hypothese von der Ausnahmslosigkeit der Lautgesetze nicht bestätigt. Sie lieferten Material für die Existenz von Zonen mit "Misch"dialekten für fast jede Isoglosse, die den Umfang (Bereich) des phonetischen Wechsels bestimmt. Dabei füllten die detaillierten Untersuchungen zur Geschichte einzelner Sprachen, namentlich der gut dokumentierten Zeitabschnitte, ganze Listen mit Abweichungen im Wirken der einstigen Lautwechsel, wobei die Erklärung dieser Ausnahmen allein durch das Wirken des Gesetzes der Analogie nicht überzeugen konnte. Schließlich erwies sich auch die Begründung der Lautgesetze durch physiologische bzw. psychologische Faktoren als wenig überzeugend, weil sie die Aufmerksamkeit allein auf die individuellen Redeakte konzentrierte und

nicht den gesellschaftlichen Charakter der Sprache und der sprachlichen Veränderungen berücksichtigte. -

Zu den ersten Kritikern der Konzeption der Junggrammatiker gehörten u. a. H. Schuchardt, J. Baudouin de Courtenay, M. Kruszewski und O. Jespersen. Den endgültigen Todesstoß versetzte die Theorie von F. de Saussure, die später Strukturalismus genannt wurde, der Theorie der Junggrammatiker. Die Methodologie der Junggrammatiker hat jedoch einen unvergänglichen Einfluß auf die Entwicklung der linguistischen Forschungen ausgeübt, insbesondere auf die diachronischen; sie ermöglichte die Bestimmung des Gegenstandes der Linguistik als Wissenschaft und schränkte den Subjektivismus in der Arbeit an der Sprache ein.

The Neogrammarians (also Young Grammarians, German Junggrammatiker) were

a German school oflinguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who

proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound change. According to this

hypothesis, a diachronic sound change affects simultaneously all words in which its environment

is met, without exception. Verner's law is a famous example of the Neogrammarian hypothesis,

as it resolved an apparent exception to Grimm's law. The Neogrammarian hypothesis was the

first hypothesis of sound change to attempt to follow the principle offalsifiability according

to scientific method. Today this hypothesis is considered more of a guiding principle than an

exceptionless fact, as numerous examples of lexical diffusion (where a sound change affects only

a few words at first and then gradually spreads to other words) have been attested.

Other contributions of the Neogrammarians to general linguistics were:

The object of linguistic investigation is not the language system, but rather the idiolect, that is, language as it is localized in the individual, and therefore is directly observable.

Autonomy of the sound level: being the most observable aspect of language, the sound level is seen as the most important level of description, and absolute autonomy of the sound level from syntax and semantics is assumed.

Historicism: the chief goal of linguistic investigation is the description of the historical change of a language.

Analogy: if the premise of the inviolability of sound laws fails, analogy can be applied as an explanation if plausible. Thus, exceptions are understood to be a (regular) adaptation to a related form.

Leading Neogrammarian linguists included:

Otto Behaghel  (1854–1936) Wilhelm Braune  (1850–1926) Karl Brugmann  (1849–1919) Berthold Delbrück  (1842–1922) August Leskien  (1840–1916) Adolf Noreen  (1854–1925) Hermann Osthoff  (1847–1909) Hermann Paul  (1846–1921) Eduard Sievers  (1850–1932) Karl Verner  (1846–1896)

Despite their strong influence in their time, the methods and goals of the Neogrammarians have

been criticized from various points of view[citation needed], but mainly for: reducing the object of

investigation to the idiolect; restricting themselves to the description of surface phenomena

(sound level); overvaluation of historical languages and neglect of contemporary ones. In

addition, the independence of phonology from other grammatical processes (e.g., syntax) is

rejected by most modern linguists, particularly the adherents of generative grammar.

1.1 Literature[edit]

Hermann Paul: Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte. (1880). Karl Brugmann und Bertold Delbrück: Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der

indogermanischen Sprachen. (1897–1916). Hugo Schuchardt : „Über die Lautgesetze. Gegen die Junggrammatiker“, in Hugo-

Schuchardt-Brevier, ein Vademekum der allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft., ed. Leo Spitzer. Halle (Saale) 1922.

Harald Wiese: Eine Zeitreise zu den Ursprüngen unserer Sprache. Wie die Indogermanistik unsere Wörter erklärt, Logos Verlag Berlin, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8325-1601-7.

Wilhelm

Streitberg

Karl Verner Hermann Paul Eduard Sievers

Adolf Noreen Hermann

Osthoff

Henry Sweet Christian Wilhelm

Braune

Karl

Brugmann

Berthold Gustav

Gottlieb

Delbrück

August Leskien Jacob Grimm -

Wilhelm Grimm

August

Schleicher

Sophus Bugge Friedrich Kluge Joseph Wright

Rasmus Rask Knud Knudsen Ivar Aasen Johannes Schmidt

Richard Boer William Jones

Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785 - 1863), Duitser

(Lexicografie, vergelijkende taalkunde, mythologie). Professor in Göttingen (1829 - 1837)

Hoogleraar in Berlijn (1841)

Tekende met Wilhelm Grimm veel volkssprookjes en sagen op

(vooral Duitse).

Deutsche Grammatik (1819-1837): in 1822 beschreef hij de eerste

Germaanse klankverschuiving, ook als wet van Grimm bekend.

Deutsche Mythologie (1835)

Deutsches Wörterbuch (vanaf 1838, eerste deel 1852; afgerond in

1960; samen met Wilhelm Grimm)

Geschichte der deutschen Sprache (1848)

Johannes Friedrich Heinrich Schmidt (1843 - 1901),

Duitser (Slavistiek, Indo-Europese talen). Professor Germaanse, Slavische talen, universiteit van Bonn (1868

- ); professor filologie, universiteit van Graz (1873-1876); universiteit

van Berlijn/Humboldt Universiteit (sinds 1876).

Wellentheorie.

Redacteur met Ernst Kuhn van Zeitschrift für vergleichende

Sprachforschung (1875-1901).

Zur Geschichte des indogermanischen Vocalismus (deel I 1871, deel

II 1875)

Die Verwandtschaftsverhältnisse der indogermanischen Sprachen

(1872)

Die Pluralbildungen der indogermanischen Neutra (1889)

Die Urheimat der Indogermanen und das europäische Zahlsystem

(1890)

Kritik der Sonantentheorie. Eine sprachwissenschaftliche

Untersuchung (1895)

Wilhelm Karl Grimm (1786 - 1859), Duitser

(taalkundige) Professor in Göttingen (1831 - 1837)

Rasmus Rask (1787 - 1832), Deen (taalkundige) Professor Literatuurgeschiedenis, universiteit van Kopenhagen.

Polyglot (hij kon ten minste 25 talen spreken)

Stichtte in 1816 Hið Íslenzka Bókmenntafélag (Icelandic Literary

Society) in Kopenhagen.

Introduction to the Grammar of the Icelandic and other Ancient

Northern Languages (1811, Deens).

Anglo-Saxon Grammar (1817, Zweeds)

Essay on the Origin of the Ancient Scandinavian or Icelandic Tongue

(1818, Deens).

In the same year, he brought out the first complete editions

of Snorri's Edda and Sæmundr's Edda (more commonly known as the Poetic or Elder Edda), in

the original text, along with Swedish translations of both Eddas. From Stockholm, he went in

1819, to St Petersburg, where he wrote, in German, a paper on "The Languages and Literature of

Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland," in the sixth number of the Vienna Jahrbücher.

In 1820, he embarked at Bushire for Bombay; and during his residence there he wrote, in

English, "A Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Zend Language" (Trans. Lit. Soc. of Bombay,

vol. iii., reprinted with corrections and additions in Trans. R. As. Soc.). From Bombay he

proceeded through India to Ceylon, where he arrived in 1822, and soon afterwards wrote, in

English, "A Dissertation respecting the best Method of expressing the Sounds of the Indian

Languages in European Characters," in the Transactions of the Literary and Agricultural Society

of Colombo. Rask returned to Copenhagen in May 1823, bringing a considerable number of

Oriental manuscripts, Persian, Zand, Pali, Sinhalese, and others, with which he enriched the

collections of the Danish capital. He died in Copenhagen on the 14th of November 1832, at

Badstuestræde 17, where a plaque commemorating him is found.

During the period between his return from the East and his death, Rask published in his native

language a Frisian Grammar (1825), an Essay on Danish Orthography (1826).

Tomb of Rasmus Rask at Assistens Kirkegård, Copenhagen. Inscriptions in Arabic, Old Norse and Sanskrit

He was the first to point out the connection between the ancient Northern and Western/Eastern

Germanic languages on the one hand, and the Lithuanian, Slavonic, Greek, and Latin languages

on the other; and he also deserves credit for having had the original idea of what is now called

"Grimm's Law" for the transmutation of consonants in the transition from the old Indo-European

languages to Teutonic, although he only compared Teutonic and Greek, Sanskrit being at the

time unknown to him.

Undersøgelse om det gamle Nordiske eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse (Essay on the Origin of the Ancient Norse or Icelandic Tongue), 1818

Anvisning till Isländskan eller Nordiska Fornspråket, 1818 Frisisk Sproglære (Frisian Grammar), 1825 Dansk Retskrivingslære (Essay on Danish Orthography), 1826 Engelsk formlære (English grammar), 1832

Franz Bopp (1791 - 1867), Duitser (Indo-Europese

taalkunde) Über das Conjugationssystem der Sanskritsprache in Vergleichung

mit jenem der griechischen, lateinischen, persischen und

germanischen Sprache (1816);

Vergleichende Grammatik des Sanskrit, Zend, Griechischen,

Lateinischen, Litthauischen, Altslawischen, Gotischen und Deutschen

(1833-1852).

August Schleicher (1821 - 1868), Duitser

(taalkundige, nadruk Slavische talen) De taal is een organisme met perioden van ontwikkeling, rijpheid en

verval.

Stamboomtheorie.

Schreef een ‘Proto-Indo-Europese’ fabel.

Die ersten Spaltungen des indogermanischen Urvolkes (1853)

Die Deutsche Sprache (1860);

Compendium der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen

Sprachen. (Kurzer Abriss der indogermanischen Ursprache, des

Altindischen, Altiranischen, Altgriechischen, Altitalischen,

Altkeltischen, Altslawischen, Litauischen und Altdeutschen) (1861-

1862);

Die Darwinsche Theorie und die Sprachwissenschaft - offenes

Sendschreiben an Herrn Dr. Ernst Haeckel (1863).

Elseus Sophus Bugge (1833 - 1907), Noor (Runoloog) Professor, Universiteit Christiana/Oslo (1860 - 1907)

Norges Indskrifter med de ældre Runer (…)

Berthold Gustav Gottlieb Delbrück (1842 - 1922),

Duitser (Indo-Europese taalkunde; vergelijkende syntax) Docent Vergelijkende taalwetenschappen, Universiteit van Halle

(1867)

Hoogleraar Sanskriet en Grieks; Vergelijkende Indo-Europese

taalwetenschappen, Universiteit Jena (1869 - 1912)

Der Gebrauch des Conjunctivs und Optativs im Sanskrit und

Griechischen (1871)

Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen

Sprachen (1893-1900; samen met Karl Brugmann).

Friedrich Karl Brugmann (1849 - 1919), Duitser

(Indo-Europese talen) Hoogleraar Sanskriet en vergelijkende taalwetenschappen (van 1887

tot 1919; Universiteit van Leipzig).

Droeg bij aan het tot stand komen van de Grundriss der

vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen (1886-

1893, tweede versie 1897-1916; samen met Berthold Delbrück).

Morphologische Untersuchungen (1878): Hierin geeft hij een

‘neogrammatische’ onderbouwing van en visie op zijn

wetenschappelijk werk.

Hij stichtte het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift Indogermanische

Forschungen in 1891 op (met Wilhelm Streitberg).

Karl Adolf Verner (1846 - 1896), Deen (Slavische

talen talen) Professor Slavistiek, Universiteit van Kopenhagen (1888-1896)

Wet van Verner (1875): “de schijnbare uitzonderingen waren geen

willekeurige afwijkingen, maar wetmatige afwijkingen”.

Verner, whose interest in languages was stimulated by reading about the work of Rasmus Christian Rask, began his university studies in 1864. He studied Oriental, Germanic and Slavic languages, and then served in the army before resuming his studies. He travelled to Russia in December 1871, spending nearly a year learning the language. His first scientific paper was Nogle Raskiana (1874).

At the same time he began to study the accent of Danish and the Slavic languages. According to his own account, upon getting up one morning, he was puzzled by the question why the Gothic wordsfadar and broþar have different consonants after the root vowel. Since he was preoccupied with

the study of accent at the time, he sought the explanation in that direction. This led to the formation of Verner's Law. He finished the relevant paper and sent it to Vilhelm Thomsen in 1875. Urged by Thomsen, he published it a year later.

Despite his achievement, Verner considered himself only an amateur of German philology. He declined certain offers of professorship, contenting himself to be a librarian at Halle. With reluctance, he applied for the Bopp prize, which went to him in 1877. He became an extraordinary professor only in 1888, when he was also elected a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Auguts Leskien (1840 - 1916), Duitser (Indo-Europese,

Baltische en Slavische talen) Latijn / Oudgrieks in Thomasschule (Leipzig; 1864-1866).

Professor Vergelijkende taalkunde / Sanskriet, Universiteit van Jena

(1868).

Buitengewoon hoogleraar Slavistiek, Universiteit Leipzig (1870).

Professor (1876 - 1915).

‘Ausnahmslosigkeit der Lautgesetze’

Hij was een stichtend lid van het tijdschrift Archiv für slavische

Philologie.

Die Deklination im Slawisch-Litauischen und Germanischen (1876).

Henry Sweet (1845 - 1912), Brit (Oudengels,

Oudijslands) Lector Fonetiek, Universiteit van Oxford (1901)

A History of English Sounds (1874)

An Anglo-Saxon Reader (1876)

First Middle English Primer (1884)

An Icelandic Primer (1895)

The Student’s Dictioanry of Anglo-Saxon (1896)

Hermann Otto Theodor Paul (1846 - 1921), Duitser

(Oudgermanist) Hoogleraar Germanistiek, Universiteit Freiburg (1874 - 1893; later

Universiteit van München (1893 - …))

Theoreticus van de Neogrammatici.

“Empirisch onderzoek is belangrijk.”

Samen met Wilhelm Braune één van de oprichters van het tijdschrift

Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur

(1873).

Zur Lautverschiebung (1874)

Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (1880)

Uitgever van Grundriß der germanischen Philologie (1891 - 1893)

Untersuchungen über den germanischen Vocalismus (1879)

Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik (1881)

Eduard Sievers (1850 - 1932), Duitser (Oudgermanist) Buitengewoon hoogleraar, Universiteit Jena (1871/1881)

Professor, Universiteit van Tübingen (1883)/Halle (1887)/Leipzig

(1892)

Gaf vele manuscripten met Oudgermaanse teksten uit (bvb.

Hildebrangslied; Heliand 1878; Tatian 1892²).

Sievers wet.

Hij editeerde het tijdschrift Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen

Sprache und Literatur (1891).

Der Heliand und die angelsächsische Genesis (1875);

Grammatik des Angelsächsischen (1882)

Zum angelsächsischen Vokalismus (1900)

Wilhelm Braune (1850 - 1926), Duitser

(Oudgermanist) Professor Germanistiek, Universiteit Leipzig (1877-1880) / Gießen

(1880-1888) / Heidelberg (1888-1912).

Samen met Hermann Paul één van de oprichters van het tijdschrift

Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur

(1873).

Grammatik des Angelsächsischen (1882)

Althochdeutsches Lesebuch (1875)

Gotische Grammatik (1880)

Althochdeutsche Grammatik (1891)

Abriss der althochdeutschen Grammatik (1919)

In 1869 Braune entered the University of Leipzig, where he was approved as an instructor in 1874. In 1877 he was appointed as extraordinary professor at the University of Giessen and became an ordinary professor of German language and literature there in 1880. He later served as a professor at the University of Heidelberg.[1] He is an important representative of the Neogrammarians.

Among his most lasting achievements were his works on the history of the Germanic languages. Editions of his grammars and anthologies of Old High German and Gothic are still in use today. In 1873 he also founded, together with Hermann Paul, the Germanic studies journal Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur often referred to among scholars as Paul und Braunes Beiträge (or PBB) and which remains one of the leading journals in Germanic philology to this day.

He was the recipient of a Festschrift on the occasion of his 70th birthday, entitled Aufsätze zur Sprach- und Literaturgeschichte. Wilhelm Braune zum 20. Februar 1920 dargebracht von Freunden und Schülern(Dortmund: Ruhfus, 1920).

Althochdeutsches Lesebuch (“Old high German reader”), compiled and provided with a dictionary by Wilhelm Braune (Halle: Niemeyer, 1875; 17th ed. by Ernst Ebbinghaus, Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1994).

Althochdeutsche Grammatik. Laut- und Formenlehre, von Wilhelm Braune. Halle: Niemeyer, 1886. 15th ed. by Ingo Reiffenstein. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2004.

Gotische Grammatik mit Lesestücken und Wörterverzeichnis von Wilhelm Braune. Halle: Niemeyer, 1880. 18th ed. by Ernst Ebbinghaus. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1973.

Joseph Wright (1855 - 1930), Brit (Anglist)

Wright was born in Thackley, near Bradford in Yorkshire, the seventh son of Dufton Wright, a woollen cloth weaver and quarryman, and his wife Sarah Ann (née Atkinson).[1] He started work as a "donkey-boy" in a quarry at the age of six, leading a donkey-drawn cart full of tools to the smithy to be sharpened. He later became a bobbin doffer – responsible for removing and replacing full bobbins – in a Yorkshire mill in Sir Titus Salt's model village. Although he learnt his letters and numbers at the Salt's Factory School, he was unable to read a newspaper until he was 15. He later said of this time, "Reading and writing, for me, were as remote as any of the sciences".[2]

By now a wool-sorter earning £1 a week, Wright became increasingly fascinated with languages and began attending night-school to learn French, German and Latin, as well as maths and shorthand. At the age of 18 he even started his own night-school, charging his colleagues twopence a week.[3]

By 1876 he had saved £40 and could afford a term's study at the University of Heidelberg, although he walked from Antwerp to save money.

Returning to Yorkshire, Wright continued his studies at the Yorkshire College of Science (later theUniversity of Leeds) while working as a schoolmaster. A former pupil of Wright's recalls that, "with a piece of chalk [he would] draw illustrative diagrams at the same time with each hand, and talk while he was doing it".[3]

He later returned to Heidelberg and in 1885 completed a PhD. on Qualitative and Quantitative Changes of the Indo-Germanic Vowel System in Greek.[2]

Career

In 1888, after his return from Germany, Wright was offered a post at Oxford University by Professor Max Müller, and became a lecturer to the Association for the Higher Education of Women and deputy lecturer in German at the Taylor Institution.[3]

From 1891 to 1901 he was Deputy Professor and from 1901 to 1925 Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford.

He specialised in the Germanic languages and wrote a range of introductory grammars for Old English,Middle English, Old High German, Middle High German and Gothic which were still being revised and reprinted 50 years after his death. He also published a historical grammar of German.

He had a strong interest in English dialects and claimed that his 1893 Windhill Dialect Grammar was "the first grammar of its kind in England." Undoubtedly, his greatest achievement was the editing of the six-volume English Dialect Dictionary, which he published between 1898 and 1905, initially at his own expense. This remains a definitive work, a snapshot of English dialect speech at the end of the 19th century. In the course of his work on the Dictionary, he formed a committee to gather Yorkshire material, which gave rise in 1897 to the Yorkshire Dialect

Society, which claims to be the world's oldest surviving dialect society. He was the author of the Dialect Test. Wright had been offered a position at a Canadian university, who would have paid him an annual salary of £500 – a very generous salary at the time. However, Wright opted to stay in Oxford and finish the Dialect Dictionary without any financial backing from a sponsor.

Personal life

In 1896 he married Elizabeth Mary Lea (1863–1958), with whom he co-authored his Old and Middle English Grammars. She also wrote the book, Rustic Speech and Folklore (Oxford University Press 1913), in which she makes reference to their various walking and cycle trips into the Yorkshire Dales, as well as various articles and essays.

The couple had two children – Willie Boy and Mary – both of whom died in childhood.[2]

Wright and his wife were known for their hospitality to their students and would often invite a dozen or more, both men and women, to their home for Yorkshire Sunday teas. On these occasions Wright would perform his party trick of making his Aberdeen Terrier, Jack, lick his lips when Wright said the Gothic words for fig-tree – smakka bagms.[4]

Although Wright was a progressive to the extent that he believed women were entitled to a university education, he did not believe that women should be made voting members of the university, saying they were, "... less independent in judgement than men and apt to run in a body like sheep".[3]

Although his energies were for the most part directed towards his work, Wright also enjoyed gardening and followed Yorkshire cricket and football teams.[2]

He died of pneumonia on 27 February 1930. His last word was "Dictionary".[2] In 1932 his widow, Elizabeth, published a biography of Wright, The Life of Joseph Wright.[5]

Wright's   Old High German Primer Wright's   Middle High German Primer Wright's   Grammar of the Gothic Language

Friedrich Kluge (1856 - 1926), Duitser (Lexicografie). Professor Duits, Universiteit van Jena (1884 assistent-professor; 1886-1893)

Professor Duits, Universiteit van Freiburg (1893-1919)

Wet van Kluge (1884): Kluge, Friedrich (1884). “Die germanische

consonantendehnung”. Paul und Braune Beiträge zur Geschichte der

deutschen Sprache und Literatur (PBB), 9. S.149-186.

Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (1881/1883).

Nominale Stammbildungslehre der altgermanischen Dialekte (1899)

Vorgeschichte der altgermanischen Dialekte (1897)

Geschichte der englischen Sprache (1899)

Urgermanisch (1913)

Deutsche Sprachgeschichte (1920)

Die Elemente des Gotischen (1911³)

Hij stichtte in 1900 Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung.

Adolf Gotthard Noreen (1854 - 1925), Zweed

(Zweedse dialectoloog; Oudgermanist)

Lector, Universiteit Uppsala (1877); Professor Scandinavistiek

(1887), Universiteit Uppsala

Fryksdalsmålets ljudlära (1877); Dalbymålet (1879); Fårömålet

(1879)

Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik (1884)

Altschwedisches Lesebuch (1892-1894)

Altschwedische Grammatik mit Einschluss des Altgutnischen (1897)

Vårt språk (1904-1924): Onafgewerkt werk.

Otto Behaghel (1854 - 1936), Duitser (Duits) Professor Germanistiek, Universiteit Heidelberg/Basel/Gießen.

Belangrijk voor het thema-rhema onderzoek (Behaghel’s wetten).

Geschichte der deutschen Sprache (1891);

Heliand und Genesis (1903)

Hermann Osthoff (1847 - 1909), Duitser (Indo-

Europese talen) Osthoffs wet

Osthoff studied Classical Philology, Germanics, Sanskrit and Comparative Linguistics in Berlin, Tübingenand Bonn. In 1869 he was awarded his doctorate in Bonn. During his time in that city he became a member of the Burschenschaft Alemannia of Bonn. From 1870 onwards, he taught in Kassel. In 1875 he successfully completed his postdoctoral 'Habilitation' in Leipzig, and in 1877 he was named Extraordinary Professor of Comparative Linguistics and Sanskrit at Heidelberg. The following year, he was granted full professorship.

The main focus of his research was in Indo-European languages. Along with Karl Brugmann and August Leskien Osthoff was a significant figure in the founding of the Neogrammarians.

Runologisten

Ottar Nicolai Grønvik (1916 - 2008), Noor (filoloog,

runoloog)

He was a lecturer from 1959 and associate professor from 1965 to 1986, at the University of

Oslo. His doctorate thesis which earned him the dr.philos. degree in 1981 was Runene på

Tunesteinen.[1] He was best known for his work on the runic alphabet and various runestones,

especially the Tune Runestone, theRök Runestone and the Eggjum stone.

Luthertexte für sprachgeschichtliche und grammatische Übungen (1960)

Runene på Tunesteinen: alfabet, språkform, budskap (1981)

The Words for "Heir", "Inheritance", and "Funeral Feast" in Early Germanic (1982)

Die dialektgeographische Stellung des Krimgotischen und die krimgotische cantilena (1983)

Runene på Eggjasteinen: en hedensk gravinnskrift fra slutten av 600-tallet (1985)

Über den Ursprung und die Entwicklung der Aktiven Perfekt- und

Plusquamperfektkonstruktionen des Hochdeutschen und Ihre Eigenart Innerhalb des

Germanischen Sprachraumes [On the Origin and the Development of the Active Perfect and

Pluperfect Constructions of High German and Their Characteristic Within the Germanic

Linguistic Area] (1986)

Fra Ågedal til Setre: sentrale runeinnskrifter fra det 6. århundre (1987)

Fra Vimose til Ødemotland : nye studier over runeinnskrifter fra førkristen tid i Norden (1996)

Untersuchungen zur Älteren nordischen und germanischen Sprachgeschichte (1998)

Der Rökstein: Über die religiöse Bestimmung und das weltliche Schicksal eines Helden aus

der frühen Wikingerzeit (2003)

Erik Brate  (1857–1924), Sweden

Ralph Elliott  (1921–2012), Australia

Stephen Flowers  (b. 1953), USA

Daniel Henry Haigh  (1819–1879), UK

R. I. Page  (1924–2012), UK

George Stephens  (1813–1895), UK

Ludvig Wimmer  (1839–1920), Denmark

Dadrik Arup Seip (1884 - 1963), Noor () Professor Noord-Germaanse talen, universiteit van Oslo.

He earned his doctorate (dr.philos.) in 1916 and was appointed professor the same year, retiring in 1954. Together with Herman Jæger, he edited and published the collected works of Henrik Wergeland in 23 volumes (Samlede Skrifter  : trykt og utrykt, 1918–1940). From 1937 until 1945, he served as the rector of the university.

Seip was a member of the Administrative Council, the temporary civil government of Norway during German military occupation, in 1940. He was removed from his post as rector of the university in 1941. He was interned by the Nazis at Grini concentration camp, and was later transferred to Sachsenhausen, but was released in 1943 as a direct result of the efforts made by the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, using Hedin's relations with many high-ranking German Nazi officials, including Hitler. He wrote about his life during the war in his 1946 book: At home and in enemy country.[1]

Even while being held prisoner, Seip carried out official university ceremonies, including the immatriculation of some students who also were imprisoned in Germany during the war.

He was an honorary doctor at the University of Hamburg (1938) and at Sorbonne (1945). He obtained the Norwegian "Storkors av St. Olav." (1945)

Knud Knudsen (1812 - 1895), Noor ()

was a Norwegian linguist and philologist.

He was involved in the development of the Riksmål and Bokmålform of the written Norwegian

language. He was also one of the first to propose Norwegianization, the rewriting

of loanwords into a Norwegian spelling (e.g. turning chauffeur into sjåfør). His aim was to give a

more Norwegian coloring to the literary language of Norway by adapting the orthography and

syntax to Norwegian usage, and by substituting wherever it was possible Norwegian words for

foreign derivatives. The most comprehensive treatment of the subject may be found in his Unorsk

og norsk, eller Fremmedords avlösning (1879-1881).

While Knudsen was extreme in his views and frequently erred through a lack of thorough

philological training, he exercised a decisive influence upon his contemporaries,

especially Björnstjerne Björnson.

Works[edit]

Haandbog i dansk-norsk sproglære, (1856)

Er norsk det samme som dansk? (1862)

Modersmaalet som skolefag (1864)

Det norske maal-stræv (1867)

Nogle spraak- og skolespörgsmaal (1869)

Den landsgyldige norske uttale (1876)

Unorsk og norsk eller fremmede ords avlösning, (1879–1881)

Af maalstriden 1881 (1881)

Norsk blandkorn (3 samlingar, 1882–1885)

Latinskole uten latin (1884)

Hvem skal vinne? (1886)

Tyskhet i norsk og dansk (1888).

Norsk maalvekst fra 1852 å regne (1894)

Kjell Venås

Kjell Venås (born 30 November 1927) is a Norwegian philologist.

He was born in Hemsedal,[1] and took his dr.philos. degree in 1967. He spent most of his career

at theUniversity of Oslo; as a lecturer from 1970 to 1971 and professor from 1971 to 1997.

Specializing in research about the Nynorsk language form, Venås has also been involved in

the Norwegian Language Council.[2] He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and

Letters.[3]

Selected bibliography[edit]

This is a list of his most notable works:[2]

Hallingmålet (1977)

Mål og miljø (1982)

For Noreg og Ivar Aasen. Gustav Indrebø i arbeid og strid (1984)

Norsk grammatikk. Nynorsk (1990)

I Aasens fotefar. Marius Hægstad (1992)

Då tida var fullkomen. Ivar Aasen (1996)

Alf TorpAlf Torp (September 27, 1853 – September 26, 1916) was a Norwegian philologist and author. He is most known for his work with Indo-European and Nordic language history and meaning of ancient languages.

Biography[edit]

Alf Torp was born in Stryn, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. He became cand. philol. in 1877 at the Bergen Cathedral School. He was a student of Sophus Bugge, and during a stay in Leipzig in 1878-80 a student ofGeorg Curtius and Ernst Windisch. In 1881 he got his doctorate at the University of Leipzig with the dissertation Die Flexion des Pali in ihrem Verhältnis zum Sanskrit.

He taught at the University of Oslo from 1883 and in 1894 he became professor in Sanskrit and comparative linguistics. He published numerous papers about the inscriptions in various languages including Etruscan,Phrygian, Venetic, Lycian and Hittite. In 1905, he was appointed Knight of 1 Class of Order of St. Olav 1905

Among many other works, in 1903-06 he published Etymologisk ordbog over det norske og det danske sprog (Etymological dictionary of the Norwegian and Danish languages) together with Norwegian linguist,Hjalmar Falk (1859-1928). It was the only Norwegian etymological dictionary for nearly a hundred years, until it was replaced in 2000 Våre arveord - etymologisk ordbok by Harald Bjorvand and Fredrik Otto Lindeman.[1][2]

Selected works[edit]

Die Flexion des Pali in ihrem Verhältnis zum Sanskrit, 1881 Vokal- og Konsonantstammer, 1889 Zu den phrygischen Inschriften aus römischer Zeit, 1894 Zum Phrygischen, 1896 Indogermanische Forschungen, 1897 Etruskische Monatsdaten, 1902 Bemerkungen zu der etruskischen Inschrift von S. Maria di Capua, 1905 Gamalnorsk ordavleiding, 1909 Nynorsk etymologisk ordbok, 1919

Lars Vikør

Lars Sigurdsson Vikør (born 30 April 1946) is a Norwegian linguist, translator and educator.

Biography[edit]

Lars Vikør is a graduate of the University of Oslo and the University of Leiden. He is a professor

of Scandinavian languages and linguistics and specialist in Nynorsk lexicography at

the University of Oslo. He is the main editor of the Norwegian Dictionary (Norsk Ordbok). He has

also engaged in the National Association for Language Collection (Landslaget for språklig

samling).[1]

Vikør has written books and articles on sociolinguistics, language politics, and modern language

history, notably The New Norse Language Movement. He has devoted himself for Samnorsk—

towards language equality between Norway's two competing written language

forms, Nynorsk and Bokmål, and has been a representative of the Norwegian Language Council.

The New Norse language movement (1975)

Sprakpolitikk pa fem kontinent: Eit oversyn og ei jamføring (1977)

Perfecting spelling: Spelling discussions and reforms in Indonesia and Malaysia, 1900-

1972 (1988)

The Nordic languages: Their status and interrelations (1993)

Aust-Timor, ein nasjon under jernhælen (1994)

Hjalmar Falk

Hjalmar Falk (1859 – 1928) was a Norwegian linguist and philologist. He was born in Vang.

He was a professor at the University of Oslo from 1887. He is particularly remembered for

his etymologic dictionary of theNorwegian and Danish language, which he wrote in cooperation

withAlf Torp. He chaired the commission that recommended/prepared the orthography revision of

1917. He was decorated Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav.[1][2]

Marius HægstadFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kristoffer Marius Hægstad (15 July 1850 – 21 November 1927) was a Norwegian educator,

linguist and politician for the Liberal Party.

He was born in Borgund as the son of jurist Ole Hægstad and Charlotte Abigael Tonning, and

was the father of Leiv Heggstad and engineering professor Olav Heggstad. He edited the

newspapers Namdals Tidendeand Namdalsposten, and was a co-ounder of Nordtrønderen. He

was elected member of the Parliament of Norway in 1891 and 1897; also serving as deputy

representative during the terms 1889–1891 and 1895–1897. He was appointed professor at

the University of Oslo from 1899 to 1920. Among his works are Gamalt trøndermaal from

1899, Hildinakvadet from 1900, and Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding from 1909 (jointly

with Alf Torp). He was the first chairman of Norigs Maallag, from its foundation in 1906.[1][2][3]

Sophus BuggeSophus Bugge (5 January 1833 - 8 July 1907) was a notedNorwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runic alphabet and thePoetic Edda and Prose Edda.[1]

Background[edit]

Elseus Sophus Bugge was born in Larvik, in Vestfold county, Norway. His ancestors had been merchants, ship owners and captains of the Larvik for several generations. Bugge was a cand.mag. (1857) and research fellow in comparative linguistics and Sanskrit (1860). He was educated in Christiania, Copenhagenand Berlin.

Career[edit]

In 1866 he became professor of comparative philology, comparative Indo-European linguistics and Old Norse at Christiania University now the University of Oslo. In addition to collecting Norwegian folksongs and traditions and writing on Runic inscriptions, he made considerable contributions to the study of the Celtic,Romance, Oscan, Umbrian and Etruscan languages. His scientific work was of fundamental importance for the Norse philology and runic research.

In his 1880 work Studies about the origin of Nordic mythological and heroic tales, Bugge theorized that nearly all myths in Old Norse literature derive from Christian and late classical concepts. Bugge's theories were generally vehemently rejected, but have had some influence.

Bugge was the author of a very large number of books on philology and folklore. His principal work, a critical edition of the Poetic Edda (Norroen Fornkvoedi), was published at Christiania in 1867. He maintained that the Eddic poems and the earlier sagas were largely founded on Christian and Latin tradition imported intoScandinavian literature by way of England. His writings also include Gamle Norske Folkeviser (1858), a collection of Old Norse folk-songs; Bidrag til den aeldste skaldedigtnings historie (Christiania, 1894); Helge-digtene i den Aeldre Edda (Copenhagen, 1896, Eng. trans., The Home of the Eddic Poems, 1899); Norsk Sagafortaelling op Sagaskrivning i Island (Christiania, 1901), and various books on runic inscriptions.[2]

Dating from 1902, Bugge's vision was so poor that he could no longer read. Professor and linguist Magnus Olsen, who was Bugge's assistant and his successor, would read and describe new discoveries of inscriptions. Bugge's final works regarding original rune scripture were not completed before he died. They were released between 1910 and 1913 through the efforts of Professor Olsen.[3]

Honors[edit]

Bugge was a member of the Scientific Society of Christiania (now The Norwegian Academy of Science) from 1858 (vice president 1884), The Royal Norwegian Scientific Society in Trondheim (1865) and a number of foreign societies. He was made honorary doctor at Uppsala University in 1877. He was appointed a Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1877, Commander Grand Cross 1890 and 1896.

Gamle norske Folkeviser (1858) Norrøne Skrifter af sagnhistorisk Indhold (1864–73) Norrœn Fornkvæði (1867)

Foretale XLVI: Argument against Hrafna-galdr Óðins. Studier over de nordiske Gude- og Heltesagns Oprindelse. Første Række (1881–89)

Om Runeindskrifterne paa Rök-stenen i Östergötland og paa Fonnaas-Spænden fra Rendalen i Norge, Stockholm (1888)

Bidrag til den ældste Skaldedigtnings Historie (1894) Hønen-Runerne fra Ringerike, hf. 1 i Norges Indskrifter med de yngre Rune (1902) Runerne paa en sølvring fra Senjen, hf. 2 i Norges Indskrifter med de yngre Runer (1906) Norges Indskrifter med de ældre Runer. Indledning: Runeskriftens Oprindelse og ældste

Historie (with M. Olsen), (posthumt) 1905–13 Der Runenstein von Rök in Östergötland (with M. Olsen), (posthumt) 1910

Ivar Aasen (1813 - 1896)

Occupation Philologist, lexicographer, playwright, poet

Language Norse dialects

Ivar Andreas Aasen (5 August 1813 – 23 September 1896) was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright and poet.[1] He is best known for having created one of Norway's official languages, Nynorsk.[2]

Background[edit]

Aasen was born at Åsen in Ørsta (then Ørsten), in the district of Sunnmøre, on the west coast of Norway. His father, a small peasant-farmer named Ivar Jonsson, died in 1826. He was brought up to farmwork, but he assiduously cultivated all his leisure in reading. An early interest of his was botany.[3] When he was eighteen, he opened an elementary school in his native parish. In 1833 he entered the household of H. C. Thoresen, the husband of the eminent writer Magdalene Thoresen, in Herøy (then Herø), and there he picked up the elements of Latin. Gradually, and by dint of infinite patience and concentration, the young peasant became master of many languages, and began the scientific study of their structure. Ivar single-handedly created a new language for Norway to become the "literary" language.[4]

Career[edit]

About 1841 he had freed himself from all the burden of manual labour, and could occupy his thoughts with the dialect of his native district, Sunnmøre; his first publication was a small collection of folk songs in the Sunnmøre dialect (1843). His remarkable abilities now attracted general attention, and he was helped to continue his studies undisturbed. His Grammar of the Norwegian Dialects(Danish: Det Norske Folkesprogs Grammatik, 1848) was the result of much labour, and of journeys taken to every part of the country. Aasen's famous Dictionary of the Norwegian Dialects (Danish:Ordbog over det Norske Folkesprog) appeared in its original form in 1850, and from this publication dates all the wide cultivation of the popular language in Norwegian, since Aasen really did no less than construct, out of the different materials at his disposal, a popular language or definite folke-maal (people's language) for Norway. By 1853, he had created the norm for utilizing his new language, which he called Landsmaal, meaning country language.[4] With certain modifications, the most important of which were introduced later by Aasen himself, but also through a latter policy aiming to merge this Norwegian language with Dano-Norwegian, this language has become Nynorsk ("New Norwegian"), the second of Norway's two official languages (the other being Bokmål, the Dano-Norwegian descendant of the Danish language used in Norway at Aasen's time). An unofficial variety of Norwegian more close to Aasen's language is still found inHøgnorsk ("High Norwegian"). Today, some consider Nynorsk on equal footing with bokmål, as bokmål tends to be used more in radio and television and most newspapers, whereas New Norse (Nynorsk) is used equally in government[2] work as well as approximately 17% of schools.[5] Although it is not as common as its brother language, it needs to be looked upon as a viable language, as a large minority of Norwegians use it as their

primary language including many scholars and authors.[5] New Norse is both a written and spoken language.[6]

Aasen composed poems and plays in the composite dialect to show how it should be used; one of these dramas, The Heir (1855), was frequently acted, and may be considered as the pioneer of all the abundant dialect-literature of the last half-century of the 1800s, from Vinje to Garborg. In 1856, he published Norske Ordsprog, a treatise on Norwegian proverbs. Aasen continuously enlarged and improved his grammars and his dictionary. He lived very quietly in lodgings in Oslo (then Christiania), surrounded by his books and shrinking from publicity, but his name grew into wide political favour as his ideas about the language of the peasants became more and more the watch-word of the popular party. In 1864, he published his definitive grammar of Nynorsk and in 1873 he published the definitive dictionary.[7]

Quite early in his career, in 1842, he had begun to receive a grant to enable him to give his entire attention to his philological investigations; and the Storting (Norwegian parliament), conscious of the national importance of his work, treated him in this respect with more and more generosity as he advanced in years. He continued his investigations to the last, but it may be said that, after the 1873 edition of his Dictionary (with a new title:[3] Danish: Norsk Ordbog), he added but little to his stores. Aasen holds perhaps an isolated place in literary history as the one man who has invented, or at least selected and constructed, a language which has pleased so many thousands of his countrymen that they have accepted it for their schools, their sermons and their songs. He died in Christiania on 23 September 1896, and was buried with public honours.[8]

The Ivar Aasen Centre[edit]

Ivar Aasen-tunet, an institution devoted to the Nynorsk language, opened in June 2000. Their web page includes most of Aasens' texts numerous other examples of Nynorsk literature (in Nettbiblioteket), and some articles, also in English, about language history in Norway.

2013 Language year[edit]

Språkåret 2013 (The Language Year 2013) celebrated Ivar Aasen's 200 year anniversary,[9] as well as the 100 year anniversary of Det Norske Teateret. The year's main focus was to celebrate linguistic diversity in Norway.[10] In a poll released in connection with the celebration, 56% of Norwegians said they held positive views of Aasen, while 7% held negative views.[11] On Aasen's 200 anniversary, 5 August 2013, Bergens Tidende, which is normally published mainly in bokmål, published an edition fully in nynorsk in memory of Aasen.[12]

References[edit]

Anon (2013). "Om Språkåret 2013" [About Language Year 2013]. www.språkåret.no (in Norwegian). Språkåret. Retrieved 9 May 2014.

Anon (2013a). "Folket verdset nynorsken sin far" [The people value the father of Nynorsk].Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2013-11-22.

Berglund, Nina (5 Sep 2013). "Language creator hailed and decried". News in English. Retrieved 2013-11-22.

Gilman, Daniel Coit; Peck, Harry Thurston; Colby, Frank Moore, eds. (1905). "Aasen, Ivar Andreas".New International Encyclopedia I. New York, NY: Dodd, Mead, and Company.

Grepstad, Ottar (2013). "Dette forunderligste lille Væsen" [This Remarkable Tiny Being].http://www.aasentunet.no/ (in Norwegian).

Haugen, Einar (2009) [1987]. Comrie, Bernard, ed. The World's Major Languages (2nd ed.). London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-35339-7.

Haugen, Einar (1997). "Aasen, Ivar Andreas". In Johnston, Bernard. Collier's Encyclopedia. I: A to Ameland (1st ed.). New York, NY: P.F. Collier.

Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "Aasen, Ivar". Encyclopedia Britannica. I: A-Ak - Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.

Katzner, Kenneth (2002) [1977]. The Languages of the World (3rd ed.). London, UK: Routledge.ISBN 0-415-25004-8.

McGovern, Una, ed. (2002). Chambers Biographical Dictionary (7th ed.). Chambers. ISBN 978-0550100511.

Steiro, Gard (5 Sep 2013). "Lenge leve spynorsken. Gratulerer med dagen, Ivar Aasen. Her får du heile avisa vår i gåve." [Long live Spynorsk. Happy Birthday, Ivar Aasen. Here's our entire newspaper in gift.]. Bergens Tidende (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2013-11-22.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Edmund Gosse (1911). "Aasen, Ivar". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Wolfgang Krause

Wolfgang Krause (18 September 1895, Steglitz – 14 August 1970, Göttingen) was

a German linguist. He specialised initially in Celtic studies and the Tokharians, later in Old

Norse and especially runology.

Education and career[edit]

Krause studied Classical Philology and Indo-Germanic Studies at the Universities of

Berlin and Göttingen, from 1914 to 1920. In 1929 he took over the chair in Linguistics at

the University of Königsberg, where his research focussed on mediaeval Scandinavian culture,

particularly the runes. In 1937, he moved to the University of Göttingen and in 1938 set up an

institute for runological research there.[1][2] In 1940, troubled by the dwindling resources for

independent academic institutions in wartime, he placed it under the sponsorship of

the SS cultural and educational organisation, the Ahnenerbe, and it became theZentralstelle des

Ahnenerbes für Runenforschung (Central Location of the Ahnenerbe for Runic Research), which

distinguished it from a similar institute directed by Krause's rival Helmut Arntz.[3][4] In 1943, he was

made Director of the Runic Division of the Ahnenerbe; however, his institute was renamed

the Lehr- und Forschungsstätte für Runen- und Sinnbildkunde (Teaching and Research Institute

for Runic and Symbological Studies) and he was forced to accept as assistant director for

Symbology Karl Theodor Weigel, whom he had long criticised as a dilettante, and who outranked

him in the Ahnenerbe despite having never completed his doctorate.[5][6]

Krause never became a member of the Nazi party,[7][8] and remained in his position after the

Second World War ended. In 1950, the Norse Study Section which he headed was combined

with his Institute for Runic Studies to form a Scandinavian Department and he was named its

director. He simultaneously remained head of the Linguistics Department. In 1963 he

became professor emeritus, after which the directorship of the two departments was again

divided. On his 70th birthday, students at the University of Göttingen honoured him with a

torchlight procession.[1]

Personal life[edit]

Krause had an eye ailment from early childhood. During the 1930s, his sight deteriorated

considerably, and in the postwar years he became completely blind.[1][9] He used Braille texts and

in deciphering runic inscriptions, was assisted by his wife, Agnes.[9] Students of his such as

Hertha Marquardt also received stipends to assist him.[1]

Die Wortstellung in den zweigliedrigen Wortverbindungen. Dissertation, Göttingen 1920

Die Frau in der Sprache der altisländischen Familiengeschichte. Habilitation thesis, 1923

Die Kelten. Tübingen 1929

Was man in Runen ritzte. Halle 1935

Runeninschriften im älteren Futhark. Halle 1937, rev. ed. Göttingen 1966

Das irische Volk: Seine rassischen und kulturellen Grundlagen. Göttingen 1940

Westtocharische Grammatik. Heidelberg 1952

Handbuch des Gotischen. Munich 1953, 3rd ed. 1968

Tocharisches Elementarbuch volume 1, Grammatik. Heidelberg 1960

"Zum Namen des Lachses". In Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen,

philologisch-historische Klasse, Göttingen 1961, pp. 83–89

Runen. Berlin 1970

Die Sprache der urnordischen Runeninschriften. Heidelberg 1971

References[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to: a  b c d Fritz Paul, Zur Geschichte der Skandinavistik an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen: Eine vorläufige Skizze, Skandinavisches Seminar, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 1985, retrieved 1 September 2010. (German)

2. Jump up ̂  Bernard Thomas Mees, The Science of the Swastika, Budapest: Central European University Press, 2008,ISBN 963-9776-18-1, p. 180.

3. Jump up ̂  The Institut für Runenforschung (Institute for Runic Research) at the University of Gießen, established in 1939: Gerd Simon with Dagny Guhr and Ulrich Schermaul, Chronologie Arntz, Helmut, 20 July 2007, revised 26 September 2007, retrieved 1 September 2010 (pdf), p. 3. (German)

4. Jump up ̂  According to Mees, p. 181, Krause reported on Arntz' activities to the Ahnenerbe.5. Jump up ̂  Michael H. Kater, Das 'Ahnenerbe' der SS 1935–1945, Stuttgart: Deutsche

Verlags-Anstalt, 1974, ISBN 3-421-01623-2, 4th ed. Munich: Oldenbourg, ISBN 3-486-56529-X, pp. 196–97 (German); Kater uses "the internationally respected runologist" Krause as an example of academics placing themselves under the wing of the Ahnenerbe out of a need to preserve themselves and their work after the war began.

6. Jump up ̂  However, Mees, p. 181, points to his own work in pre-runic ideographs and says that while he "reserv[ed] his approbation for amateur advocates of ideographic studies", he "accommodat[ed] previously amateur adherents to Wirth's theories within German academia".

7. Jump up ̂  According to Paul, he used his limited sight as an excuse. "Auf Anfrage . . . nach seiner Parteimitgliedschaft konnte Krause kühl antworten, daß er zwar 'der NSV, dem RLB sowie der Kreisgemeinschaft des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes' angehöre: 'Die Mitgliedschaft der anderen wichtigen Gliederungen der Partei verbietet sich mir wegen meines Augenleidens und der sich daraus ergebenden Hemmnisse.'" (To the question . . . of his membership in the party, Krause was able to coolly respond that he did belong to "the National Socialist People's Welfare, the Reich Air Defence Corps, and also the local branch of the Red Cross . . . Membership in the other important divisions of the party is ruled out on account of my eye ailment and the limitations resulting from it".)

8. Jump up ̂  Mees, p. 263.9. ^ Jump up to: a  b Günter Neumann, "Wolfgang Krause", in Göttinger Gelehrte: Die Akademie

der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen in Bildnissen und Würdigungen 1751-2001, ed. Karl Arndt,

Gerhard Gottschalk and Rudolf Smend, Göttingen: Wallstein, 2001, ISBN 3-89244-485-4, p. 486. (German)

Erik Moltke (1901-1984)Erik Moltke (b. 1901 - d October/November 1984) was a runologist, writer, editor. Through his leadership the Runologist Section of the National Museum of Denmark became a world centre for the scientific study ofrunology c.1942 CE.[1]

In 1942 Moltke and Lis Jacobsen published the standard edition of Danish inscriptions.[1] Moltke also held the position of Chief Editor of the National Museum of Denmark's series of volumes on Denmark's churches.[1]

Moltke, Erik (1985). Runes and Their Origin: Denmark and Elsewhere. Copenhagen: Nationalmuseets Forlag. ISBN 87-480-0578-9

Richard Constant Boer (1863 - 1929)

Richard Constant Boer (31 January 1863, Warnsveld - 20 August 1929, Amsterdam) was a

linguist specializing in Old Norse.

Academic History[edit]

Boer received his Ph.D. in 1888 in Groningen for his edition ofOrvar-Odds saga. From 1888 to

1900, Boer taught Dutch and geography at the Gymnasium in Leeuwarden from 1888 to 1900.

He was also a professor of Old Norse at the University of Groningenfrom 1894 to 1900, and after

1900, professor of Old Germanic andSanskrit at the University of Amsterdam.

In 1921, the study of Scandinavian languages was officially established at the University of

Amsterdam. R.C. Boer maintained his focus on Old Norse and Old Norse literature, and in the

1920s, his teaching extended to the modern Scandinavian languages

(Danish, Norwegian, Swedish) and their literature.

Örvar-Odds Saga  (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1888) Bjarnar saga Hítdoelakappa  (Halle A.S.: M. Niemeyer. 1893) Ívens saga (Chrétien de Troyes)  (Halle A.S.: M. Niemeyer. 1898) Grettis Saga Asmundarsonar  (Halle A.S.: M. Niemeyer. 1900) Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Entwicklung der Nibelungensage  (3 vols.; Halle

A.S. Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses. 1906, 1907, 1909) De Liederen van Hildebrand en Hadubrand (Johannes Müller. 1909) Die Sagen von Ermanarich und Dietrich von Bern  (Halle a.d.S.: Buchhandlung des

Weisenhauses. 1910) Methodologische Bemerkunger über die Untersuchung der Heldensage: Eine

Auseinandersetzung mit Andreas Heusler (Amsterdam: Johannes Müller. 1911) Die Altenglische Heldendichtung: Béowulf  (Halle a.d.S.: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.

1912) Studiën over de Metriek van het Alliteratievers  (Amsterdam: Johannes Müller. 1916) Korte Deensche Spraakkunst  (Haarlem: H.D.T. Willink & Zoon. 1918) Syncope en Consonantengeminatie: Studiën over Oudnoorsche Spraakleer (Tijdschrift voor

Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde 37. E.J. Brill. 1918. pp. 161–222) Oudnoorsch Handboek  (Haarlem: H.D.T. Willink & Zoon. 1920) Die Edda: Einleitung und Text  (Haarlem: H.D.T. Willink & Zoon. 1922)

Die Edda mit Historisch-Kritischem Commentar  (Haarlem: H.D.T. Willink & Zoon. 1922) Noorwegens Letterkunde in de Negentiende Eeuw  (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn. 1922) Oergermaansch Handboek (Haarlem: H.D.T. Willink & Zoon. 1924)

Jan de Vries (linguist)Jan Pieter Marie Laurens de Vries (11 February 1890 — 23 July 1964) was a Dutch scholar ofGermanic linguistics and Germanic mythology, from 1926 to 1945 ordinarius at Leiden University and author of reference works still in use today.

During the German occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War, de Vries was part of theNederlandsche Kultuurkamer, a National Socialist censorship body corresponding to the Kulturkammer, and prominent in the Ahnenerbe. In a 1940 pamphlet and in radio speeches, he demonstrated sympathy for Nazi ideology; in 1944 he fled to Leipzig.[1] After the war, he was imprisoned and stripped of his academic position.

De Vries was born in Amsterdam and demonstrated anti-democratic views before the war; he had a great enthusiasm for German culture.[1] However, he rejected the doctrine of the "Nordic race", and was frequently criticized by influential Nazis for insisting on differentiating Dutch culture from German, and for specific actions, such as seeking to found a new journal that would be open to anti-Nazi contributions, and planning to make Ethnography a full subject of study at a Catholic university.[2][3] He refused to join the Nazi Party, and in the preface to De Germanen in 1941 warned against "an all too uncritical mode of thought."[1]At his trial for collaboration the verdict was that in spite of "personal moral integrity" he had committed "very serious political errors."[3] He was sentenced to time served in internment and was able to resume his research and publishing while teaching Dutch from 1948 to 1955 in Oostburg, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen.[1] He died, aged 74, in Utrecht.

His scholarly work was not tainted by Nazism, and continues to be respected and often cited in Germanic studies, particularly the two two-volume comprehensive studies, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, still the fullest overview of Germanic religion, and Altnordische Literaturgeschichte, a basic reference work onOld Norse literature. In the Netherlands his translations and his etymological and place-name work were also important.

Studiën over Færösche Balladen, diss. Amsterdam, 1915; Heidelberg: Rother, 1922. De Wikingen in de lage landen bij de zee, Haarlem, 1923. translation: Henrik Ibsen, Zes Voordrachten, Maastricht, 1924. De Germaansche Oudheid, Haarlem, 1930. Contributions to the Study of Othin: Especially in his Relation to Agricultural Practices in

Modern Popular Lore, FFC 94, Helsinki, 1931. The Problem of Loki, FFC 110, Helsinki, 1932. Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, 2 vols. Vol. 1, (Grundriß der Germanischen Philologie

12.1), Berlin-Leipzig: de Gruyter, 1935, 2nd rev. ed. 1956, Vol. 2 (Grundriß der Germanischen Philologie 12.2), Berlin-Leipzig: de Gruyter, 1937, 2nd rev. ed. 1957 (3rd ed. 1970, repr. 2000).

Wulfilae Codices Ambrosiani Rescripti, Epistularum Evangelicarum Textum Goticum Exhibentes, Phototypice editi et prooemio instructi a Jano de Vries, Bibliothecae Ambrosianae Codices quam simillime expressi, 3 vols., Turin, 1936.

Edda, vertaald en van inleidingen voorzien, Amsterdam, 1938, 2nd rev. ed. Amsterdam, 1942, (3rd ed. 1943, 4th ed. 1944, 5th ed. 1952, 6th ed. 1978, 7th ed. 1980, 8th ed. 1988).

De Germaansche Oudheid, 1930; rev. ed. as De Germanen, Haarlem, 1941. De Wetenschap der Volkskunde (Hoekstenen onzer Volkskultuur 1), Amsterdam, 1941. Altnordische Literaturgeschichte, 2 vols. Vol. 1 (Grundriß der germanischen Philologie 15),

Berlin-Leipzig: de Gruyter, 1941, 2nd rev. ed. 1964 repr. 1970, Vol. 2 (Grundriß der germanischen Philologie 16), Berlin: de Gruyter, 1942, rev. ed. 1967 repr. 1970 (3rd ed. 1 vol. 1999 ISBN 3-11-016330-6 ).

Die Geistige Welt der Germanen, Halle a.d. Saale: Niemeyer, 1943 (2nd ed. 1945, 3rd ed. Darmstadt, 1964).

De Goden der Germanen, Amsterdam, 1944. Het Nibelungenlied, 2 vols. Vol 1 Sigfried, de Held van Nederland, Vol. 2 Kriemhilds Wraak,

Antwerp, 1954. Etymologisch Woordenboek: Waar komen onze woorden en plaatsnamen vandaan?,

Utrecht-Antwerp, 1958, 2nd rev. ed. 1959. Heldenlied en Heldensage, Utrecht-Antwerp, 1959; tr. as Heroic Song and Heroic Legend,

Oxford, 1963. Kelten und Germanen (Bibliotheca Germanica 9), Bern, 1960. Altnordisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, Leiden, 1961 (2nd ed. 1963). Keltische Religion, (Die Religionen der Menschheit 18), Stuttgart, 1961. Godsdienstgeschiedenis in Vogelvlucht, Utrecht-Antwerp, 1961. Forschungsgeschichte der Mythologie, (Orbis Academicus 1.7), Freiburg, 1961. Woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandse Plaatsnamen, Utrecht-Antwerp, 1962.

Stefán Einarsson

Stefán Einarsson (9 June 1897 – 9 April 1972) was an Icelandic linguist and literary historian,

who was a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in the United States.

Life and career[edit]

Stefán was born and raised on the farm of Höskuldsstaðir in Breiðdalur. His parents were Einar

Gunnlaugsson and his wife Margrét Jónsdóttir.[1] After attending school in Akureyri and graduating

in 1917 from the Menntaskólinn in Reykjavík,[2] he attended the University of Iceland and

completed a Master's degree in Icelandic in 1923–24; while a student, he assisted Sigfús

Blöndal and Jón Ófeigsson on the Icelandic dictionary for four years.[3] He then

studied phonetics at the University of Helsinki in 1924–25 and at the University of Cambridge and

completed his Ph.D at the University of Oslo with a dissertation on the phonetics of Icelandic.[4]

He became a faculty member at Johns Hopkins the same year, 1927, at the invitation of Kemp

Malone, for whom he had recorded a study text in Icelandic,[5] and worked there until his

retirement in 1962. He taught primarily in the English department, in the fields of Old

Norse and Old English, and beginning in 1945, Scandinavian literature. He became Professor of

Scandinavian Philology in 1945.[6][7] He remained loyal to Iceland, accepting all invitations to

contribute articles about Iceland to reference works and becoming one of the founding officers of

the Icelandic Patriotic Society, for whose journal he wrote at least one article a year.[8] He

edited Heimskringla, the Icelandic newspaper published in Winnipeg. In 1942 he was appointed

Icelandic vice-consul in Baltimore; from 1952 to 1962, when he retired from Johns Hopkins, he

served as consul.[7][9] After retirement he moved back to Iceland and lived in Reykjavík until his

death (in Hrafnista nursing home);[10] he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for 1962–63.[11]

He played violin and piano and drew and painted well;[2] several of his works include illustrations

by him.[12]He was married twice. His first wife, Margarethe Schwarzenberg[13] (26 May 1892 – 7

January 1953), was anEstonian historian. They had no children. Her ashes are buried with his at

the family farm.[4][14][15] His second wife, whom he married in December 1954, was Ingibjörg

Árnadóttir[4][7] (1896 – 1980), fromNjarðvík, a relative of Halldór Hermannsson, the librarian of

the Fiske Icelandic collection at Cornell University.[16] She had four children from a previous

marriage.

Publications[edit]

Stefán Einarsson published prolifically, over 500 books and articles in all.[17] In addition to books

and articles on linguistic and literary topics, in English he published a grammar of the Icelandic

language (which grew out of a wartime Armed Forces course and contains a valuable glossary of

Modern Icelandic words)[18][19] and two histories of Icelandic literature, one of the first treatments of

modern Icelandic literature[20] and the other the first survey spanning the entire national literature

from the settlement to the contemporary period, including émigré literature.[21] He was the first

Icelander to take a structuralist approach to Icelandic phonetics, and an early explorer of the idea

of a link between skaldic and Latin meter.[22] In Icelandic, in addition to two further books on

Icelandic literature, one of them an expansion of his general survey published in English,[23] he

also co-edited and wrote a large part of a book on the history of his native Breiðdalur and was

responsible for two of the annuals of the Ferðafélag Íslands, coveringAusturland. His publications

show three areas of emphasis: Icelandic language and culture as revealed in literature; the East

Fjords; and great living Icelanders, particularly Sigurður Nordal, with whom he studied,Þórbergur

Þórðarson, and Halldór Laxness.[24] Early in his career, at Sigurður's urging, he wrote a biography

of Eiríkr Magnússon, who was his maternal great uncle.[25] However, he ranged extremely widely

in his reviews, "from Medieval Latin to Strindberg and Icelandic telephone directories."[26]

He was also on the editorial boards of the Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Modern

Language Notes, and Scandinavian Studies (and Notes).[27]

Honors[edit]

Stefán was an honorary member of numerous learned societies, including the American

Philosophical Society, to which he was only the second Icelander to be elected.[4] He was

awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon, Iceland's highest honor, in 1939,[28] and in

1962 received an honorary doctorate from the University of Iceland.[27]

There is a room dedicated to his work at the Breiðdalur Institute in Breiðdalsvík.[15][23]

Selected works[edit]

In English[edit]

Icelandic: Grammar, Texts, Glossary. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1945. OCLC 43095499. 2nd ed. repr. 2000. ISBN 9780801863578

History of Icelandic Prose Writers, 1800–1940. Islandica 32–33. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1948. OCLC 1465586

A History of Icelandic Literature. The American-Scandinavian Foundation. New York: Johns Hopkins, 1957. OCLC 296324 3rd printing 1969. ISBN 9780801801860

In Icelandic[edit]

Skáldaþing. Reykjavík: G. Ó. Guðjonsson, 1948. OCLC 2076523 Islensk bókmenntasaga, 874–1960. Reykjavík: S. Jónsson, [1961]. OCLC 2050896 with Jón Helgason, ed. and contributor. Breiðdæla: drög til sögu Breiðdals. Reykjavik,

1948.OCLC 2915592 Austfirðir sunnan Gerpis. Árbók Ferðafélags Islands. [Reykjavík]: Ferðafélag Íslands,

1955.OCLC 256958732 with Tómas Tryggvason. Austfirðir norðan Gerpis. Árbók Ferðafélags Islands. [Reykjavík]:

Ferðafélag Íslands, 1957. OCLC 55778776 Austfirzk skáld og rithöfundar. Austurland safn austfirzkra fræða 6. [Reykjavík]: Bókaforlag

Odds Björnssonar, 1964. OCLC 1806111

References[edit]

1. Jump up ̂  Anatoly Liberman, "Stefán Einarsson: Austfirðingur í húð og hár", in Stefán Einarsson, Studies in Germanic Philology, ed. Anatoly Liberman, Hamburg: Buske, 1986, ISBN 9783871187551, pp. ix–xlii, p. ix.

2. ^ Jump up to: a  b Liberman, p. xv.3. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xvii.4. ^ Jump up to: a  b c d Dr. Stefán Einarsson: eini Breiðdælingurinn til þess að hljóta

doktorsnafnabót á 20. öld, Breiðdæla, 2002, retrieved 9 March 2013 (Icelandic)5. Jump up ̂  Liberman, pp. xvii, xxi.6. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xxix.7. ^ Jump up to: a  b c Biographical Note - Einarsson (Stefan) 1897–1972: Papers 1942–1959,

Special Collections, The Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University.8. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xxv.9. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xxvi.10. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xxxiii.11. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xxx.12. Jump up ̂  John G. Allee, Jr., "Stefán Einarsson", in Nordica et Anglica: Studies in honor of

Stefán Einarsson, ed. Allan H. Orrick, Janua linguarum series maior 22, The Hague: Mouton, 1968, OCLC 631499, pp. 7–9, p. 8.

13. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xx; other sources spell her name Margarete Schwarzenburg.14. Jump up ̂  Liberman, pp. xxxi, xxxiii.15. ^ Jump up to: a  b History of Hoskuldsstadir, Odin Tours Iceland, retrieved 8 March 2013.16. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xxxii.17. Jump up ̂  Allee, p. 7, "approaching five hundred"; see "The Writings of Stefán

Einarsson", Nordica et Anglica, pp. 175–96. The bibliographical supplement in Liberman, pp. xliii–xlvi, brings the number to 525.

18. Jump up ̂  Review by Fritz Frauchiger, Books Abroad 21.3, Summer 1947, p. 352.19. Jump up ̂  Review by Gabriel Turville-Petre, The Modern Language Review 41.2, April 1946,

pp. 219–20.20. Jump up ̂  Review of Stefán Einarsson.   History of Icelandic Prose Writers, 1800–1940  by

Knut Bergsland, Books Abroad 24.4, Autumn 1950, pp. 415–16.21. Jump up ̂  Review of Stefán Einarsson.   A History of Icelandic Literature  by Raymond E.

Lindgren, Books Abroad32.3, Summer 1958, p. 322.22. Jump up ̂  Liberman, pp. xxxvi–xxxvii.23. ^ Jump up to: a  b Málþing um ævi og störf Stefáns Einarssonar, Austur.is, [2012], retrieved 9

March 2013 (Icelandic)24. Jump up ̂  Allee, pp. 8, 9.25. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xi.26. Jump up ̂  Liberman, p. xl.27. ^ Jump up to: a  b Liberman, p. xxxv.

28. Jump up ̂  "Just Begging to be Explored: Breiðdalur Valley of East Iceland", The Icelandic Times, September 2011.

Chronological list of Stefán Einarsson's publications  (Icelandic)

Eric Valentine Gordon (1896 - 1938)

Occupation academic, philologist

Subject Philology

Canadian

Eric Valentine Gordon (1896–1938) was a philologist, known as an editor of medieval Germanic texts and a teacher of medieval Germanic languages.[1]

Early life[edit]

Gordon was born on Valentine's Day, 1896, in Salmon Arm, British Columbia.

He was educated at Victoria College and McGill University. In 1915, he was also one of the eight Rhodes Scholars of Canada, studying at University College. He joined the Canadian Field Artillery in 1916 but was discharged for medical reasons. He worked for the rest of the First World War for the Ministries of National Service and of Food. Returning to Oxford in 1919, he took a second-class BA in 1920, partly under the tutelage of J. R. R. Tolkien. He began a B. Litt. at Oxford, but abandoned it upon his appointment to the English Department of Leeds University in 1922.

University of Leeds[edit]

Gordon worked at Leeds from 1922 to 1931, introducing first Old Norse and later modern Icelandic to the curriculum. While at Leeds, he wrote his An Introduction to Old Norse (first published 1927) and collaborated with Tolkien, who worked at Leeds from 1920–25, particularly on their edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (first published 1925). After Gordon came to Leeds, Tolkien wrote is his diary "Eric Valentine Gordon has come and got firmly established and is my devoted friend and pal."[2] Gordon was promoted to the Professorship of English Language in 1926, following Tolkien's departure, and oversaw the University Library's acquisition of the library of Bogi Thorarensen Melsteð, establishing the library as one of the world's best Icelandic collections.[citation needed] Accordingly, for his services to Icelandic culture, Gordon was made a Knight of the Royal Icelandic Order of the Falcon in 1930.[citation needed]

With Tolkien, Gordon also began the Viking Club. In this club they would read Old Icelandic sagas (and drink beer) with students and faculty, and invent original Anglo-Saxon songs. A collection of these was privately published as the book Songs for the Philologists. Most of the printed editions were destroyed in a fire and only 14 or so books are said to exist.[3] Gordon was active in the Yorkshire Dialect Society. On Gordon's departure from Leeds, he was succeeded by Bruce Dickins. Among Gordon's best students were the scholars Albert Hugh Smith, J.A. Thompson, the translator of Halldór Laxness's classic novelIndependent People,[4] and Ida Pickles (later his wife).[5]

In 1930 Gordon married Pickles (born 1907), and together they had four children (the eldest of whom, Bridget Mackenzie, went on to lecture in Old Norse at Glasgow University).[citation needed]

University of Manchester, and death[edit]

In 1931, Gordon was made Smith Professor of English Language and Germanic Philology at the University of Manchester, where his research focused on Old and Middle English. Among his students was A. R. Taylor, who later succeeded Gordon at Leeds.[6] He died unexpectedly in 1938 of complications following an operation to remove gallstones. After his death, Gordon's widow Ida took on a number of his teaching duties at Manchester, finishing and posthumously publishing a number of his works, before retiring in 1968.

1927 An Introduction to Old Norse, Revised edition 1956, revised by A.R. Taylor; Reprinted 1981, Oxford University Press, USA; 2nd edition

References[edit]

1. Jump up ̂  Unless otherwise stated, information in this entry derives from Douglas A. Anderson, ' "An Industrious Little Devil": E. V. Gordon as Friend and Collaborator with Tolkien', in Tolkien the Medievalist, ed. by Jane Chance, Routledge Studies in Medieval Religion and Culture, 3 (New York: Routledge, 2003), pp. 15-25. ISBN 0-415-28944-0.

2. Jump up ̂  Carpenter, Humphrey (2000). J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Houghton Mifflin, page 111. ISBN 0-618-05702-1.

3. Jump up ̂  TolkienBooks.net - Songs for the Philologists4. Jump up ̂  Halldór Laxness, Independent People, trans. by J.A. Thompson (London: Harvill

Press, 1999), p. 1.5. Jump up ̂  http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/info/20040/school_of_english/1253/

history_of_the_school_of_english6. Jump up ̂  C. E. F. [Christine Fell], 'Arnold Rodgers Taylor', Saga-Book, 23 (1990-93), 489-90.

Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1827 - 1889)

Guðbrandur Vigfússon, known in English as Gudbrand Vigfusson, (born 13 March 1827; died 31 January 1889[1]) was one of the foremost Scandinavian scholars of the 19th century.

Life[edit]

He was born of an Icelandic family in Breiðafjörður. He was brought up, until he went to a tutor's, by his kinswoman Kristín Vigfússdóttir, to whom he records, he owed not only that he became a man of letters but almost everything. He was sent to the old school at Bessastad and (when it moved there) at Reykjavík. In 1849, already a fair scholar, he came to Copenhagen University as a bursarius(bursar) in the Regense College.

After his student course, he was appointed stipendiarius by the Arna-Magnaean trustees, and worked for fourteen years in the Arna-Magnaean Library until, as he said, he knew every scrap of old vellum and of Icelandic written paper in that whole collection.

In 1866, he settled down in Oxford, which he made his home for the rest of his life. He held the office of Reader in Scandinavian at Oxford University (a post created for him) from 1884 till his death. He was made a Jubilee Doctor of Uppsala in 1877, and received the Danish order of the Dannebrog in 1885.

Guðbrandur died of cancer on 31 January 1889. He was buried in St. Sepulchre's Cemetery, Oxford, on the 3rd of February, 1889.

Work[edit]

He was an excellent judge of literature, reading most European languages well and being acquainted with their classics. His memory was remarkable, and if the Eddic poems had ever been lost, he could have written them all down from memory. He spoke English well, with a strong Icelandic accent. He wrote a beautiful, distinctive and clear hand, in spite of (or because of) the thousands of lines of manuscript copying he had done in his early life.

His Tímatöl (written between October 1854 and April 1855) laid the foundations for the chronology of Icelandic history. His editions of Icelandic classics (1858–1868), Biskopa Sögur, Bárðar Saga, Fornsögur(with Mobius), Eyrbyggia Saga and Flateyar-bók (with Carl Rikard Unger) opened a new era of Icelandic scholarship. They can be compared to the Rolls Series editions of chronicles by William Stubbs, for the interest and value of their prefaces and texts.

He spent the seven years 1866–1873 on the Oxford Icelandic-English Dictionary, the best guide to classic Icelandic, and a monumental example of single-handed work. His later series of editions (1874–1885) included Orkneyinga Saga and Háconar Saga, the great and complex mass of Icelandic historical sagas known as Sturlunga, and the Corpus Poeticum Boreale, in which he edited the entire body of classic Scandinavian poetry. As an introduction to the Sturlunga, he wrote a complete, concise history of the classic Northern literature and its sources. In the introduction to the Corpus, he laid the foundations of a critical history of the Eddic poetry and Court poetry of the North in a series of well-supported theories.

His little Icelandic Prose Reader (with F. York Powell) (1879) furnishes a path to a sound knowledge of Icelandic. The Grimm Centenary Papers (1886) give good examples of the range of his historic work, while his Appendix on Icelandic currency to Sir G. W. Dasent's Burnt Njal is a methodical investigation into an intricate subject.

As a writer in his own tongue, he once gained a high position by his Relations of Travel in Norway and South Germany. In English, as his Visit to Grimm and his powerful letters to The Times show, he had attained no mean skill. His life is mainly a record of well-directed and efficient labor in Denmark and Oxford.

External links[edit]

The grave of Guðbrandur Vigfússon in St Sepulchre's Cemetery, Oxford, with biography An Icelandic-English Dictionary  by Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, published in

1874.

Einar Haugen

Einar Ingvald Haugen (/ ̍ h aʊ ɡ ən / ; April 19, 1906 - June 20, 1994) was an American linguist,

author andProfessor at University of Wisconsin–Madison and Harvard University.

Biography[edit]

Haugen was born in Sioux City, Iowa to Norwegians from the town of Oppdal in Norway. When

he was a young child, the family moved back to Oppdal for a few years, but then returned to

the United States. He attended Morningside College in Sioux City but transferred to St. Olaf

College to study with Ole Edvart Rølvaag. He earned his B.A. in 1928 and immediately went on to

graduate studies in linguistics at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was

awarded his Ph.D. in 1931.

In 1931 Haugen joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he stayed until

1962. He was made Victor S. Thomas Professor of Scandinavian and Linguistics at Harvard

University in 1964, and stayed here until his retirement in 1975. Haugen served as president of

the Linguistic Society of America, the American Dialect Society, and the Society for the

Advancement of Scandinavian Study. Haugen was also a member of the Board of Editors of

the Norwegian-American Historical Association. [1]

Haugen is credited for having pioneered[citation needed] the field of sociolinguistics and being a leading

scholar within the field of Norwegian-American studies, including Old Norse studies. Perhaps his

most important work was The Norwegian language in America; A study in bilingual

behavior (ISBN 0-253-34115-9). In addition to several important works within these fields, he

wrote the authoritative work on the dialect of his ancestral home of Oppdal and a book

entitled The Ecology of Language, with which he pioneered a new field of linguistics later

called Ecolinguistics. Einar Haugen also wrote Norwegian American Dictionary/Norsk engelsk

ordbok (ISBN 0-299-03874-2).[2][3]

His last book was a biography of Norwegian virtuoso violinist Ole Bull co-written with his

daughter, Camilla Cai.[3][4]

Memorials[edit]

The Einar and Eva Lund Haugen Memorial Scholarship has been established by the Norwegian-

American Historical Association to honor Einar Haugen and his wife Eva Lund Haugen.

Additionally, the Boston Chapter of the American-Scandinavian Foundation voted to establish

the Einar and Eva Haugen Prize. The prize is awarded annually to an undergraduate or graduate

student for excellence in the field of Scandinavian languages and literature at Harvard University.[5]

Selected bibliography[edit]

Voyages To Vinland: The First American Saga (1942) Spoken Norwegian (1946) The Norwegian Language in America: A Study in Bilingual Behavior (1953) Bilingualism in the Americas (1956) Language Conflict and Language Planning: The Case of Modern Norwegian (1966) Studies by Einar Haugen: Presented on the occasion of his 65th birthday ( 1971) The Ecology of Language; Language science and national development (1972) Norwegian-English Dictionary: A Pronouncing and Translating Dictionary of Modern

Norwegian (1974) The Scandinavian Languages: An Introduction to their History (1976) Bibliography of Scandinavian Languages and Linguistics 1900-70 (1974) Scandinavian Language Structures (1982) Immigrant Idealist: A Literary Biography of Waldemar Ager, Norwegian American (1989) Ole Bull: Norway's romantic musician and cosmopolitan patriot (1993)

Elmer H. Antonsen (1929 - …)

Studied:    - Germanic philology

Studied at:    - Union College (Schenectady) NY (1947 - 1951; BA - 1951)    - University of Vienna, Austria (1951 - 1952)    - University of Illinois, Urbana (1952 - 1953)    - University of Göttingen, Germany (1956)    - University of Illinois (1956 - 1959)        (~ MA - 1957; PhD - 1961; Ernst A. Philippson was his teacher)

Taught at:     - University of Illinois (1952 - 1953; 1956 - 1959; 1967 - 1996)    - Northwestern University (1959 - 1961)    - University of Iowa (1961 - 1967)

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- A Concise Grammar of the Older Runic Inscriptions (1st ed. - 1975)- Runes and Germanic Linguistics (1st ed. - 2002)

Alfred Bammesberger (1938 - )

Studied:     - English Philology

Studied at:     - Yale University (XXXX - XXXX)         ~ W. Cowgill was his teacher    - University of Munich        ~ earned his PhD in 1965

Taught at:     - Catholic University of Eichstätt (XXXX - ) 

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Deverbative jan-Verba des Altenglischen vergleichend mit den übrigen altgermanischen Sprachen dargestellt (1st ed. - 1965)- Beiträge zu einem etymologischen Wörterbuch des Altenglischen (1st ed. - 1979)- Der Aufbau des Germanischen Verbalsystems (1st ed. - 1986)- Die Morphologie des urgermanischen Nomens (1st ed. - 1990)

Richard Constant Boer (1863 - 1929)

Taught at:     - University of Amsterdam (1899 - 1929)

Died in XXXXXX on the 20th of August 1929.  Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Oudnoorsch handboek (2nd ed. - 1920) - Oudgermaansch handboek (2nd ed. - 1924) 

Alistair Campbell (1907 - 1974)

Taught at:  - Oxford University (1963 - 1974)

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures: - Old English Grammar (1st ed. - 1959) 

Frans Camille Cornelis van

Coetsem (1919 - 2002)

Studied:    - Germanic linguistics and philology

Studied at:    - Catholic University of Leuven            (received BA in 1946)            (received PhD in 1952)            (received post-PhD in 1956)

Taught at:     - Catholic University of Leuven (1957 - 1967)    - Leiden University (1963 - 1968)    - Cornell University (1968 - 1989)

Died in Ithaca, New York on the XXxx of XXXXXX 2002.  

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Das System der starken Verba und die Periodiesierung im älteren Germanischen (1st ed. - 1956)- Ablaut and Reduplication in the Germanic Verb (1st ed. - 1993)- The Vocalism of the Germanic Parent Language (1st ed. - 1994)

Eric Valentine Gordon (1896 - 1938)

Studied at: - Oxford University (1920) (~ Craigie was his teacher)

Taught at:     - Leeds University (1922 - 1931)     - Manchester University (1932 - 1938)

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures: - An Introduction to Old Norse (1st ed. - 1927) 

Andreas Heusler (1865 - 1940)

Andreas Heusler

Born on the 10th of August 1865 in Arlesheim near Basel, Switzerland.

Taught at:     - University of Berlin (1890 - 1918)     - University of Basel (1919 - XXXX)

Died in Basel on the 28th of February 1940. Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Altisländisches Elementarbuch (X ed. - XXXX) - Die Altgermanische Dichtung 

Ferdinand Holthausen 

(1860 - 1956)

erdinand Holthausen

Born on the 9th of September 1860 in Soest.

Studied:    - Comparative Linguistics    - Germanic Philology

Studied at:    - Leipzig (1880 - XXXX)    - Heidelberg    - Berlin    - Jena

Taught at:     - University of Göttingen (1888 - 1891)    - University of Giessen (1891 - 1893)    - University of Göteborg (1893 - 1900)    - University of Kiel (1900 - 1925)        ~ retired in 1925    - University of Wiesbaden (1927 - 1935)        ~ as a Guest Professor

Died in Wiesbaden on the 19th of September 1956.  

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Altisländisches Elementarbuch (X ed. - 1895) - Altisländisches Lesebuch (X ed. - 1896) - Altsächsisches Elementarbuch (X ed. - 1899)- Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (XXXX) - Gotisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (XXXX) - Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altwestnordischen (X ed. - 1948) - Etymologisches Wörterbuch der englischen Sprache (X ed. - 1917) - Altfriesisches Wörterbuch (X ed. - XXXX) 

Winfred Philip Lehmann 

(1916 - )

Winfred Philip Lehmann

Born on the 23rd of June 1916 in Surprise, Nebraska, USA.

Studied:    - Germanic Linguistics

Studied at:     - Northwestern College, Watertown, WI (1932 - 1936)     - University of Wisconsin (1937 - 1941)             ~ (1938 - M.A.)             ~ (1941 - Ph.D.)

Taught at:     - Army Signal Corps (1941 - 1946)     - Washington University (1946 - 1949)     - University of Texas at Austin (1949 - )    

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- The Alliteration of Old Saxon Poetry (1st ed. - 1953) - The Alliterations of the Edda (1st ed. - 1954)

- The Development of Germanic Verse form (1st ed. - 1956)- The Alliterations of the Beowulf  (1st ed. - 1958)- The Alliterations of the Christ, Guthlac, Elene, Juliana, Fates of the Apostles, Dream of the Rood (1st ed. - 1960)- A Gothic Etymological Dictionary (1st ed. - 1986)

Eduard Prokosch 

(1876 - 1938)

Eduard Prokosch

Born on the 15th of May 1876 in Eger, Bohemia.

Studied:     - German Philology

Studied at:     - University of Chicago (18XX - 1901)         ( ~ 1901 received M.A.)     - University of Heidelberg (summer 1904)     - University of Leipzig (autumn 1904 - 1905)         ( ~ took his doctor's degree under Eduard Sievers)

Taught at:     - University of Chicago (1901 - 1904)         ( ~ as instructor in German)     - University of Wisconsin (1905 - 1913)     - University of Texas (1913 - 19XX)         ( ~ lost position during the war because of a statement in his textbook concerning the German parliament)     - Bryn Mawr College (1919 - 1928)     - New York University (1927 - 1929)     - Yale University (1929 - 1938)

Died in XXXXXX on the 11th of August 1938.  

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Beiträge zur Lehre vom Demonstrativpronomen in den altgermanischen Dialekten (1st ed. - 1906) - The Sounds and History of the German Language (1st ed. - 1916) - An Outline of German Historical Grammar (1st ed. - 1933) - A Comparative Germanic Grammar (1st ed. - 1938) 

Randolph Quirk 

(1920 - )

Randolph Quirk

Born on the 12th of July 1920 in the Isle of Man, United Kingdom.

Studied:    - English Philology

Studied at: 

    - University College London (1939 - 1940; 1945 - 1947)        (~received BA in 1947)    - Yale University (1951 - 1952)

Taught at: 

    - University College London (1947 - 1954); (1960 -

1981)    - University of Durham (1954 - 1960)

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- (ed.) Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu (1st ed. - 1953); with P. Foote- An Old English Grammar (1st ed. - 1955); with C. L. Wrenn- Essays on the English Language (1st ed. - 1968)- Old English Literature (1st ed. - 1975); with V. Adams and D. Dary- An Old English Grammar (1st ed. - 1994); with S. E. Deskis

Alfred Reszkiewicz 

(1920 - 1973)

Alfred Reszkiewicz

Born on the 19th of April 1920 in Gorlice, Podkarpacie, Poland.

Studied: 

    - Classical Philology    - English Philology

Studied at:     - Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland (1938 - 1945)    - Yale University (1946)    - University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA (1949 - 1950)         ( ~ postgraduate studies under W. H. Bennett)

Taught at:     - Jagiellonian University, Cracow (1950)     - Warsaw University (1950 - 1973)

Died in Poznan, Poland on the 27th of August 1973.  

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Elementy gramatyki historycznej jezyka angielskiego (1st ed. - 1951-54; 2 vols.) - The phonemic interpretation of Old English digraphs (BPTJ 12: 179-187; 1953) - Old English Essentials (1st ed. - 1964) - Ordering of elements in late Old English prose in terms of their size and structural complexity (1st ed. - 1966) - Split constructions in Old English (Studies in language and literature in honour of Margaret Schlauch, 313-326; 1966) - The elimination of the front rounded and back unrounded short vowel phonemes from Medieval English: A reinterpretation(Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny 18: 279-295; 1971) - Pozycja dopelnienia nominalnego w zdaniu trzyczlonowym w jezyku staroangielskim (Acta Philologica 3: 3-18; 1971) - On the rise of Old English secondary non-front short vowel phonemes (Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 4: 23-33; 1972) - Synchronic Essentials of Old English (West Saxon) (1st ed. - 1973) - A Diachronic Grammar of Old English (1st ed. - 1973) - An Old English Reader (1st ed. - 1973) 

Eduard Sievers 

(1850 - 1932)

Eduard Sievers

Born on the 25th of November 1850 in Lippoldsberg, Germany.

Studied:     - Classic Lanugages     - German and Semitic Philology

Studied at:     - University of Leipzig             ~ (Zarncke, Curtius and Ebert were his teachers)             ~ (1870 - Dissertation)

Taught at:     - University of Jena (1871 - 1883)     - University of Tübingen (1883 - 1887)     - University of Halle (1887 - 1892)     - University of Leipzig (1892 - 1932)

Developed a new school in German philology stressing speech and speech history with Wilhelm Braune (1850 - 1926) andHermann Paul (1846 - 1921).

Founded a journal with the two philologists mentioned above titled "Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur" which is still in publication.

Died in Leipzig on the 30th of March 1932.  

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Heliand und die angelsächsische Genesis (1st ed. - 1875) - Angelsächsische Grammatik (1st ed. - 1882) - Altgermanische Metrik (1st ed. - 1893) - Deutsche Sagversdichtungen des 9.-11. Jh. (1st ed. - 1924) - Steigton und Fallton des Althochdeutschen (1st ed. - 1925) 

Mikhail Ivanovich Steblin-Kamenskij 

(1903 - XXXX)

Mikhail Ivanovich Steblin-Kamenskij

Born on the 29th of August 1903 in Petersburg.

Studied:

Studied at:     - University of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg)         (~ finished studies in 1939)         (~ received his doctor's degree in 1948)

Taught at:

Died in XXXXXX on the XXxx of XXXXXX XXXX.  

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Istorija skandinavskich jazykov (1953) - Drevneislandzkij jazyk (1955) - Ocerki po diaxroniceskoj fonologii skandinavskix jazykov(1957) 

Aleksander Szulc 

(1924 - )

Aleksander Szulc

Born on the 22nd of March 1924 in Poznan, Poland.

Studied:     - Germanic philology

Studied at:     - Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (XXXX - 1951)         ~ then named the University of Poznan         ~ Mikolaj Rudnicki was his teacher         ~ received M.A. degree in 1951         ~ received Ph.D. degree in 1959         ~ received D.Litt degree in 1963

Taught at:     - Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (1951 - 1966)     - Jagiellonian University in Krakow (1966 -)    

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Kompendium gramatyki historycznej jezyka niemieckiego (1st ed. - 1957) - Umlaut und Brechung. Zur inneren und äusseren Geschichte der nordischen Sprachen (1st ed. - 1964) - Abriß der diachronischen deutschen Grammatik. Teil I: Das Lautsystem (1st ed. - 1967) - Jezyki skandynawskie (1st ed. - 1970) - Diachronische Phonologie und Morphologie des Althochdeutschen (1st ed. - 1974) - Historische Phonologie des Deutschen (1st ed. - 1987) - Jezyki germanskie in Jezyki indoeuropejskie part 2 (L. Bednarczuk) (1st ed. - 1988) - Historia jezyka niemieckiego (1st ed. - 1991) - Odmiany narodowe jezyka niemieckiego. Geneza - rozwój - perspektywy (1st ed. - 1999) 

Theo Vennemann 

(1937 - )

Theo Vennemann

Born on the 27th of May 1937 in Oberhausen-Sterkrade, Germany.

Studied:     - Mathematics     - Physics    - Philosophy    - German philology

Studied at:     - University of Göttingen (1957 - 1959)    - University of Marburg (1959 - 1964)        ~ received his M.A. in 1964 "mit Auszeichnung"    - University of Texas at Austin (1964 - 1965)        ~ W. P. Lehmann was his teacher    - University of California, Los Angeles (1965 - 1968)        ~ received his PhD in 1968 "with distinction"        ~ T. H. Wilbur was his teacher

Taught at:     - University of California, Los Angeles (1965 - 1968; 1969 - 1974)     - University of California, Irvine (1968 - 1969)     - University of Munich (1974 - )

 

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

Author of numerous articles dealing with historical grammar of the German language

Joseph Wright 

(1855 - 1930)

Joseph Wright

Born on the XXxx of XXXXXX 1855 in Thackley, United Kingdom.

Studied:

Studied at:     - University of Heidelberg (1876)     - University of Leeds (matriculated 1878)     - University of London (BA - 1882)     - Universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig (1882 - 1888)         (~ Hermann Osthoff was his teacher)         (~ doctorate in Heidelberg in 1885)

Taught at:     - Oxford University (1891)

Died in XXXXXX on the XXxx of XXXXXX 1930.  

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- A Primer of the Gothic Language (1st ed. - 1892) - Grammar of the Gothic Language (1st ed. - 1910) - Old English Grammar (2nd ed. - 1914)   ~ written together with E. M. Wright - An Old High German Primer (1st ed. - 1888) - An Elementary Old English Grammar (1st ed. - 1923)

Ludwik Zabrocki 

(1907 - 1977)

Ludwik Zabrocki

Born on the 24th of November 1907 in Czersk, Poland.

Studied:     - Indo-European philology     - Polish philology     - Oriental philology

Studied at:     - University of Poznan (1927 - 1931)         ~ E. Klich, M. Rudnicki, A. J. Smieszek and H. Ulaszyn were his teachers)

Taught at:     - University of Poznan (1930 - 1936; 1945 - 1977)     - University of Torun (1951 - 1953)         ~ received his Ph.D. in 1945         ~ received his D.Litt. in 1949

Died in Poznan, Poland on the 8th of October 1977.  

Publications on Old Germanic languages & literatures:

- Wspólnoty komunikatywne w genezie i rozwoju jezyka niemieckiego. Prehistoria jezyka niemieckiego (1st ed. - 1964) 

A     - Antonsen ElmerB    - Bammesberger Alfred    - Behaghel Otto     - Bethge R.     - Boer Richard Constant     - Braune Wilhelm     - Bremer O.     - Brugmann Karl     - Brunner Karl     - Bugge Elseus Sophus C     - Campbell Alistair     - van Coetsem Frans     - Craigie William A.D     - Dieter Ferdinand     - Dyboski Roman E    - Ebbinghaus Ernst A.F     - Franck Johannes     - Frantzen J.J.A.A. G     - Girvan Ritchie     - Gordon Eric Valentine     - Grimm Jakob     - Guchmann Mirra Moiseevna     - Gutenbrunner Siegfried H     - van Hamel Anton Gerard     - Hartmann F.     - van Helten Willem Lodewijk     - Heusler Andreas     - Heyne Moritz     - Hirt Hermann     - Holthausen Ferdinand     - Holtzmann A. I J K     - Kluge Friedrich     - Kock Axel     - Krahe Hans     - Krause Wolfgang L     - Lehmann Winfred Philip     - Luick Karl M     - Mosse Fernand N     - Noreen Adolf O 

P     - Paul Hermann    - Prokosch Eduard Q     - Quirk RandolphR     - Rask Rasmus Christian     - Reszkiewicz Alfred S     - Schatz J.     - Schlüter W.     - Sievers Eduard     - Steblin-Kamenskij M. I.     - Streitberg Wilhelm     - Sweet Henry     - Szulc Aleksander T     - Thomsen Vilhelm     - Twaddell William F.U     - Uhlenbeck Christianus C.V     - Vennemann Theo    - de Vries Jan W     - Wimmer Ludvig F. A.     - Wrenn Charles L.     - Wright Elizabeth Mary     - Wright Joseph X Y Z     - Zabrocki Ludwik     - Zaluska-Stromberg Apolonia 

Maurits Gysseling

Maurits Gysseling (Oudenburg, 7 September 1919 – Ghent, 24 November 1997) was an

influential Belgian researcher into historical linguistics and paleography. He was especially well

known for his editions and studies of old texts relevant to the history of the Dutch language, and

also for his very detailed analyses of historical place names and their probable origins.

Based upon the results of his study of place names, Gysseling became one of the proponents of

the "Nordwestblok" idea that before the 2nd century BCE the language of Gallia Belgica was

an Indo-European language that was neither Germanic nor Celtic. According to his conclusions,

the northern Belgae then became Germanic-speaking, and never had been fully Celtic-speaking,

in the centuries before Rome conquered them.

Major published works include:

Diplomata Belgica ante annum millesimum centesimum scripta (2 volumes) (1950)

Toponymisch woordenboek van België, Nederland, Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en West-

Duitsland (vóór 1226) (2 volumes) (1960) (A dictionary of place names in Belgium, Holland,

Luxemburg, North France, and West Germany (before 1226))

Proeve van een Oudnederlandse grammatica (1964) (Attempt at an Old Dutch grammar)

Hoofdlijnen in de evolutie van het Nederlandse vocalensysteem (1975)

De Germaanse woorden in de Lex Salica (1976) (Germanic words in the Lex Salica)

Noordwesteuropese persoonsnaambestanddelen (1982) (Components of northwest

European personal names)

Prehistorische waternamen (1983) (Prehistoric water names)

Inventaris van het archief van Sint-Baafs en Bisdom Gent tot eind 1801 (5 delen) (1997-

2000) (Inventory of the archive of Sint-Baafs and the Bishopric of Gent until the end of 1801)

At his death his letters and archives were left to the University of Gent, where he had worked, and

the Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde (Royal Academy for Dutch

Language and Literature). Uncompleted works in these records include Het Antroponymisch

Woordenboek van België, Nederland, Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en West-Duitsland (tot 1226),

the Toponymisch Woordenboek van Oost- en Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and a re-working of Julius

Pokorny's Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch.

Friedrich Maurer (linguist)

Born January 5, 1898

Lindenfels

Died November 7, 1984 (aged 86)

Merzhausen

Main interests

Germanistics

Major works Nordgermanen und Alemannen,Deutsche

Wortgeschichte

Influenced by[show]

Maurer's classification of German dialects

Friedrich Maurer (January 5, 1898 – November 7, 1984) was a German linguist and medievalist.

Biography[edit]

Maurer studied classical philology and comparative linguistics at theUniversity of Frankfurt,

starting 1916. The same year, he wasdrafted and in 1917 he was gravely injured while fighting at

theWestern Front of World War I,[1] causing him to spend the following period recovering in a

military hospital at Heidelberg. After the war had ended, Maurer commenced full-time studies

of Germanistics at Heidelberg University (1918) andGiessen (1919), where he also took courses

in classical philology and Indo-European studies. Both at Heidelberg and at Giessen, Maurer was

a member of the local chapters of the Wingolf.

Maurer obtained a doctorate under the supervision of Otto Behaghel in 1922, who was to have a

lasting influence on Maurer's work. He then obtained a habilitation in German philology in 1925,

becomingprofessor extraordinarius in 1929, still at Giessen, and subsequently professor

ordinarius at Erlangen(1931).

Having previously been a member of Stahlhelm, Maurer joined the SA after the

Nazi Machtergreifung but left the organisation in 1935.[2] He joined the Nazi Party in 1937,[2] as

well as the NS Teachers League, the NS-Dozentenbund and the NS-Altherrenbund. In the same

year, he became a full professor at Freiburg, where he was to chair the Institute for German

Philology until retiring in 1966. From 1938/1939, Maurer worked with the Ahnenerbe.[3]

After World War II, the allied military government of Germany called on Maurer, who then

founded scientific institutes at the partially destroyed University of Freiburg and the University of

Erlangen. In 1958 and 1959, Maurer chaired the League of German Scholars and co-founded the

Institute for the German Language (Institut für Deutsche Sprache, IDS) at Mannheim.

In 1979, Maurer fell gravely ill and had to cease his work.[1] He died in 1984.

Work[edit]

Like this thesis supervisor Otto Behaghel, Maurer directed much attention to the study

of dialects(dialectology and dialect geography), as well as the comparative linguistics of German.

He published numerous works on medieval literature and poetry, which were notable for the

connections they contained between literature studies, cultural

history, prehistoric archaeology and sociology. With Friedrich Stroh, Maurer published

the Deutsche Wortgeschichte ("History of German words") in 1943.

Maurer's 1942 linguistic work Nordgermanen und Alemanen ("Northern Germans and Alemanni")

is considered his most important. In this work, Maurer puts forth a theory of the development of

the Germanic languages, strongly imbued with nationalist ideology, hypothesizing a strong union

of the Germanic peoples in antiquity; the theory is still controversial to this day. He especially to

construct a conception of the West Germanic languages as precursors to modern German.

Against the common tripartite division of Germanic into North, East and West Germanic

languages, he posited a five-fold division into North Germanic (Scandinavia), North Sea

Germanic (Saxon, Frisian, etc.), Rhein-Weser Germanic (Cherusci, Chatti, laterFranks), Elbe

Germanic (Suebi, Marcomanni, Lombards, later Alemanni) and Oder-Weichsel

Germanic(Vandals, Burgundians, Goths). This theory was mainly supported by Tacitus and Pliny

the Elder, and especially the latter's observation in the Natural History that there

are Germanorum genera quinque, i.e. "five kinds of Germans".[4] In the third addition of 1952,

Maurer adds archaeological evidence to support his classification, most notably citing Rafael von

Uslar's article of the same year, "Archäologische Fundgruppen und germanische

Stammesgebiete vornehmlich aus der Zeit um Christi Geburt." Maurer equates the five groups of

findings discussed in that article with five linguistic groups, causing a debate which to this date

has not reached a final conclusion; no written evidence of the Germanic languages prior to the

seventh century AD exists to prove or disprove Maurer's thesis.

Friedrich Maurer (1942), Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und

frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde, Strasbourg: Hünenburg.

Winfred P. Lehmann

Winfred Philip Lehmann (23 June 1916, in Surprise, Nebraska – 1 August 2007, in Austin,

Texas) was anAmerican linguist noted for his work in historical linguistics, particularly Proto-Indo-

European and Proto-Germanic, as well as for pioneering work in machine translation.[1]

Biography[edit]

After receiving B.A. in Humanities at the Northwestern College in Watertown in 1936, he went on

to receive his M.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1938 and a Ph.D. in 1941, both

in Germanic philologyat the University of Wisconsin.

Early in his career, during World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps as Officer-in-

Charge of theJapanese Language School and Japanese instructor. After the war he became

Assistant Professor in the Department of German at Washington University, and was recruited in

1949 to the University of Texas at Austin as an Associate Professor of Germanic Linguistics. He

was promoted to a Full Professor in 1951, and chaired that department from 1953 to 1964. He

was largely responsible for developing that program into the Department of Linguistics at the

University of Texas, and served as its first Chair, in the period 1964–1972.

Awards and honors[edit]

He received Fulbright Research Fellowship to Norway in 1950–51, and a Guggenheim

Fellowship in 1972–73. He served as Director of the Georgetown English Language Program

in Ankara, Turkey in 1955–56, as Chairman of the Linguistics Delegation to the People's Republic

of China in 1974, and as Co-Chairman of the Commission on Humanities and Social Sciences to

the People's Republic of China in 1981. He was elected President of the Association for

Computational Linguistics in 1964. He is the only person to have served as both the President of

the Linguistic Society of America, in 1973, and the Modern Language Association of America, in

1987.

Upon his retirement in 1986, scholars from Western Europe, the Soviet Union and the U.S.

gathered at the University of Texas to honor him at an IREX Conference on Linguistic

Reconstruction. The volume which grew from this conference, Reconstructing Languages and

Cultures (1992, edited by Edgar Charles Poloméand Werner Winter), points to the worldwide

impact of Lehmann's work on Indo-European and historical linguistics.

Lehmann was also honored by two other Festschrifts, in 1977 and in 1999.

In 2007, Lehmann received the "IAMT Award of Honor" (in memoriam) from the International

Association for Machine Translation.

Work and legacy[edit]

Beside being responsible for launching two extremely successful departments at the University of

Texas, he is also credited for the establishment of the Linguistics Research Center at the

University of Texas at Austin, where he served as the Director from 1961 until his death.

His well-known books on Proto-Indo-European and historical linguistics include:

1952 Proto-Indo-European Phonology. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press and Linguistic Society of

America.ISBN 0-292-73341-0. (2005-07. Online version.)

1962 Historical Linguistics. (3rd ed. 1992) London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-07243-3.

1967 A Reader in Nineteenth Century Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Bloomington:

Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34840-4. (2005-07. Online version.)

1974 Proto-Indo-European Syntax. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-76419-7.

(2005-07. Online version.)

1986 A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-040817-6-3

1993 Theoretical Bases of Indo-European Linguistics. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-

08201-3.

2002 Pre-Indo-European. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man. ISBN 0-941694-82-

8.

An important contribution was his Proto-Indo-European Syntax, the first and one of the few

existing treatments of Proto-Indo-European syntax in a generative framework.

In his last book (2002), he assembled extensive data from the nominal and verbal systems, from

the lexicon,phonology, and syntax of the ancient IE languages, to argue that Pre-Indo-

European was active/stative in alignment, rather than nominative/accusative.

With Gamkrelidze and Ivanov, Lehmann accounted for the similarity of the IE middle and perfect

paradigms to the Hittite hi-conjugation by postulating an ancient stative ancestor for all three.

He authored over 50 books and special issues of journals as well as 250 scholarly articles. In the

period 1951–1986 he directed approximately fifty doctoral dissertations. Since 1986 he was

Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the UT-Austin.

His wife, Ruth Preston Miller Lehmann (died in 2000), was also a distinguished historical linguist.

Sigmund Feist

Sigmund Feist (Mainz, 12 June 1865 - Copenhagen, 23 March 1943) was a German

Jewish pedagogue and historical linguist. He was the author of the Germanic substrate

hypothesis as well as a number of important works concerning Jewish ethnic and racial identity.

Feist served as the director of the Jewish Reichenheim Orphanage in Berlin from 1906 to 1935.

In 1907 he became a member of the Gesellschaft der Freunde society.

Feist emigrated to Denmark in 1939 where he died four years later.

Works in historical linguistics[edit]

Einführung in das Gotische  (1922) Etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache  (1923) Vergleichende Wörterbuch der Gotischen Sprache mit Einschluss des Krimgotischen und

sonstiger zerstreuter Überreste des Gotischen (1923) Indogermanen und Germanen  (1924) Germanen und Kelten in der antiken Überlieferung  (1925)

Bibliography for Wulfila database: Feist, Sigmund. Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Gotischen Sprache Mit Einschluss des Krimgotischen und sonstiger zerstreuter Überreste des Gotischen. Dritte neubearbeitete und vermehrte Auflage E. J. Brill Leiden 1939

An Analysis of * z loss in West Germanic[1]

William JonesSir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was an Anglo-Welsh philologist and scholar of ancient India, particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among Indo-European languages. He, along with Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed, founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatick Researches.

Biography[edit]

William Jones was born in London at Beaufort Buildings, Westminster; his father (also named William Jones) was a mathematician from Anglesey in Wales, noted for devising the use of the symbol π. The young William Jones was a linguistic prodigy, learning Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew and the basics of Chinese writing at an early age.[1] By the end of his life he knew thirteen languages thoroughly and another twenty-eight reasonably well, making him a hyperpolyglot.

Jones' father died when he was aged three. His mother Mary Nix Jones raised him. Jones attended Harrowin September 1753 and then went on to Oxford University. He graduated from University College, Oxford in 1768 and became M.A. in 1773. Too poor, even with his award, to pay the fees, he gained a job tutoring the seven-year-old Lord Althorp, son of Earl Spencer. He embarked on a career as a tutor and translator for the next six years. During this time he published Histoire de Nader Chah (1770), a French translation of a work originally written in Persian by Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi. This was done at the request of KingChristian VII of

Denmark who had visited Jones – who by the age of 24 had already acquired a reputation as an orientalist. This would be the first of numerous works on Persia, Turkey, and the Middle East in general.

In 1770, he joined the Middle Temple and studied law for three years, which would eventually lead him to his life-work in India; after a spell as a circuit judge in Wales, and a fruitless attempt to resolve the issues of the American colonies in concert with Benjamin Franklin in Paris, he was appointed puisne judge to the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Calcutta, Bengalon 4 March 1783, and on 20 March he was knighted. In April 1783 he married Anna Maria Shipley, the eldest daughter of Dr. Jonathan Shipley,Bishop of Llandaff and Bishop of St Asaph. Anna Maria used her artistic skills to help Jones document life in India. On 25 September 1783 he arrived in Calcutta.

Jones was a radical political thinker, a friend of American independence. His work The principles of government; in a dialogue between a scholar and a peasant [London?]: printed and distributed gratis by the Society for Constitutional Information, 1783 was the subject of a trial for seditious libel after it was reprinted by his brother-in-law William Shipley.

In the Subcontinent he was entranced by Indian culture, an as-yet untouched field in European scholarship, and on 15 January 1784 he founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. Over the next ten years he would produce a flood of works on India, launching the modern study of the subcontinent in virtually every social science. He also wrote on the local laws, music, literature, botany, and geography, and made the first English translations of several important works of Indian literature. He died in Calcutta on 27 April 1794 at the age of 47 and is buried in South Park Street Cemetery.[2]

Sir William Jones sometimes also went by the nom de plume Youns Uksfardi ( اوکسفردی .(یونسThis pen name can be seen on the inner front cover of his Persian Grammar published in 1771 (and in subsequent editions as well). The second half of the pen name, Uksfardi, Persian rendition of "from Oxford", can be directly attributed to the deep attachment William Jones had for the University of Oxford. The first name Youns is a rendition of Jones.

Scholarly contributions[edit]

Of all his discoveries, Jones is known today for making and propagating the observation that classicalGreek and Latin seemed to have been derived from Sanskrit. In his Third Anniversary Discourse to the Asiatic Society (1786) he suggested that classical Greek and Latin had a common root and that the two may be further related, in turn, to Gothic and the Celtic languages, as well as to Persian.

Although his name is closely associated with this observation, he was not the first to make it. In the 16th century, European visitors to India became aware of similarities between Indian and European languages[3]and as early as 1653 Van Boxhorn had published a proposal for a proto-language ("Scythian") forGermanic, Romance, Greek, Baltic, Slavic, Celtic and Iranian.[4] Finally, in a memoir sent to the French Academy of Sciences in 1767 Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux, a French Jesuit who spent all his life in India, had specifically demonstrated the existing analogy between Sanskrit and European languages.[5] In 1786 Jones postulated a proto-language uniting Sanskrit, Iranian, Greek, Latin, Germanic and Celtic, but in many ways his work was less accurate than his predecessors', as he erroneously included Egyptian, Japanese andChinese in the Indo-European languages, while omitting Hindi.[4]

Nevertheless, Jones' third annual discourse before the Asiatic Society on the history and culture of the Hindus (delivered on 2 February 1786 and published in 1788) with the famed "philologer" passage is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies.[6]

The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than theGreek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both theGothic and the Celtic, though

blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with theSanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family.

This common source came to be known as Proto-Indo-European.[7]

Jones was the first to propose a racial division of India involving an Aryan invasion but at that time there was insufficient evidence to support it. It was an idea later taken up by British administrators such as Herbert Hope Risley but remains disputed today.[8]

Schopenhauer's citation[edit]

Arthur Schopenhauer referred to one of Sir William Jones's publications in §1 of The World as Will and Representation (1819). Schopenhauer was trying to support the doctrine that "everything that exists for knowledge, and hence the whole of this world, is only object in relation to the subject, perception of the perceiver, in a word, representation." He quoted Jones's original English:

... how early this basic truth was recognized by the sages of India, since it appears as the fundamental tenet of the Vedânta philosophy ascribed to Vyasa, is proved by Sir William Jones in the last of his essays: "On the Philosophy of the Asiatics" (Asiatic Researches, vol. IV, p. 164): "The fundamental tenet of the Vedânta school consisted not in denying the existence of matter, that is solidity, impenetrability, and extended figure (to deny which would be lunacy), but in correcting the popular notion of it, and in contending that it has no essence independent of mental perception; that existence and perceptibility are convertible terms."

Schopenhauer used Jones's authority to relate the basic principle of his philosophy to what was, according to Jones, the most important underlying proposition of Vedânta. He made more passing reference to Sir William Jones's writings elsewhere in his works.

References[edit]

1. Jump up ̂  Edward Said, Orientalism New York: Random House, page 77.2. Jump up ̂  The South Park Street Cemetery, Calcutta, published by the Association for the

Preservation of Historical Cemeteries in India, 5th ed., 20093. Jump up ̂  Auroux, Sylvain (2000). History of the Language Sciences. Berlin, New York:

Walter de Gruyter. p. 1156.ISBN 3-11-016735-2.4. ^ Jump up to: a  b Roger Blench Archaeology and Language: methods and issues. In: A

Companion To Archaeology. J. Bintliff ed. 52–74. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2004.5. Jump up ̂  "The Sanskrit Connection: Keeping Up With the Joneses". Dr.Wheeler's Website.

Retrieved 16 April 2013.6. Jump up ̂  Jones, Sir William (1824). Discourses delivered before the Asiatic Society: and

miscellaneous papers, on the religion, poetry, literature, etc., of the nations of India. Printed for C. S. Arnold. p. 28.

7. Jump up ̂  Damen, Mark (2012). "SECTION 7: The Indo-Europeans and Historical Linguistics". Retrieved 16 April 2013.

8. Jump up ̂  Bates, Crispin (1995). "Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: the early origins of Indian anthropometry". In Robb, Peter. The Concept of Race in South Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 231. ISBN 978-0-19-563767-0. Retrieved 2 December 2011.

Jay Jasanoff

Jay Harold Jasanoff (/ ̍ dʒ æ z ən ɒ f / ; born June 12, 1942) is an American linguist and Indo-

Europeanist, best known for his h ₂ e-conjugation theory  of the Proto-Indo-European verbs. He

teaches Indo-European linguistics and historical linguistics at Harvard University.

Jasanoff, of Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish background, was born in New York City. He

received both his bachelor's degree (in 1963) and his Ph.D. (in 1968) from Harvard. After working

for one year as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, he returned to

Harvard to teach as an assistant professor and, later, associate professor from 1970 to 1978. He

then moved to Ithaca, New York, to teach atCornell University, where he was promoted to full

professor in linguistics. He taught at Cornell for twenty years, including a number of years as the

department chair. Since 1998 he has been the Diebold Professor of Indo-European Linguistics

and Philology at Harvard, and was the department chair from 1999 to 2008.

In his research, he has examined, in addition to the Indo-European verb, such issues as the

origin of theBalto-Slavic pitch accent and the internal reconstruction of the earliest stages of

the Proto-Indo-European language.

His wife, Sheila Jasanoff, is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. His daughter, Maya

Jasanoff, is a professor in the Department of History at Harvard, and his son, Alan Jasanoff, is a

neuroscientist at MIT.

Stative and Middle in Indo-European. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 23.

Innsbruck: Institut fur Sprachwissenschaft, 1978. ISBN 3-85124-540-7.

Mír Curad. Studies Presented to Calvert Watkins, edited by Jay Jasanoff, H. Craig Melchert,

and Lisi Oliver. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 92. Innsbruck: Institut fur

Sprachwissenschaft, 1998. ISBN 3-85124-667-5.

Hittite and the Indo-European Verb, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press,

2003. ISBN 0-19-928198-X.

Holger Pedersen (linguist)Holger Pedersen (Danish: [ˌhʌlˀɡ} ɐ ˈpʰeðˀɐsn� ]; 7 April 1867 – 25 October 1953) was a Danish linguist who made significant contributions to language science and wrote about 30 authoritative works concerning several languages.

He was born in Gelballe, Denmark, and died in Hellerup, next to Copenhagen.

Education and academic career[edit]

(Principal source: Koerner 1983)

Pedersen studied at the University of Copenhagen with Karl Verner, Vilhelm Thomsen, and Hermann Möller. He subsequently studied at the University of Leipzig with Karl Brugmann, Eduard Sievers, Ernst Windisch, and August Leskien.

In the fall of 1893, Pedersen enrolled at the University of Berlin, where he studied with Johannes Schmidt. The following year he studied Celtic languages and Sanskrit with Heinrich Zimmer at the University of Greifswald.

In 1895 he spent several months in the Aran Islands in Ireland to study the conservative form of Gaelicspoken there.

Pedersen submitted his doctoral dissertation to the University of Copenhagen in 1896. It dealt withaspiration in Irish. It was accepted and published in 1897. The dissertation committee included Vilhelm Thomsen and Otto Jespersen.

Also in 1897, Pedersen took a position as a lecturer on Celtic languages at the University of Copenhagen. In 1900 he became a reader in comparative grammar there. In 1902 he was offered a professorship at theUniversity of Basel, which he declined, but was able at the same

time to persuade the University of Copenhagen to establish an extraordinary professorship for him (Koerner 1983:xii). Pedersen also turned down the offer in 1908 of a professorship at the University of Strassburg (ib.). Following the retirement of Vilhelm Thomsen in 1912, Pedersen acceded to Thomsen's chair at the University of Copenhagen. He remained at the University of Copenhagen for the rest of his life.

Contributions to linguistics[edit]

In 1893, Pedersen traveled to Corfu with Karl Brugmann to study Albanian in place. Subsequently Pedersen published a volume of Albanian texts collected on this journey (1895). The publication was due to the recommendation of Brugmann and Leskien (Koerner 1983:x). He continued to publish work on Albanian for many years thereafter. Pedersen's work on Albanian is often cited in Vladimir Orel's Albanian Etymological Dictionary (1995).

Among students of the Celtic languages Pedersen is best known for his Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen, 'Comparative Grammar of the Celtic Languages', which is still regarded as the principal reference work in Celtic historical linguistics.

His Hittitisch und die anderen indoeuropäischen Sprachen, 'Hittite and the Other Indo-European Languages', represented a significant step forward in Hittite studies, and is often relied on in Friedrich'sHethitisches Elementarbuch (2d ed. 1960), the standard handbook of Hittite.

Also influential was his Tocharisch vom Gesichtspunkt der indoeuropäischen Sprachvergleichung, 'Tocharian from the Viewpoint of Indo-European Language Comparison'. For example, André Martinet(2005:179n) states that his discussion of sound changes in Tocharian is "fondé sur la présentation du tokharien par Holger Pedersen," 'based on the presentation of Tocharian by Holger Pedersen'.

It was Pedersen who formulated the ruki law, an important sound change in Indo-Iranian, Baltic, and Slavic.

He is also known for the description of Pedersen's Law, a type of accentual shift occurring in Baltic and Slavic languages (1933a).

Pedersen endorsed the laryngeal theory (1893:292) at a time when it "was regarded as an eccentric fancy of outsiders" (Szemerényi 1996:123). In his classic exposition of the theory, Émile Benveniste (1935:148) credits Pedersen as one of those who contributed most to its development, along with Ferdinand de Saussure, Hermann Möller, and Albert Cuny.

Two of Pedersen's theories have been receiving considerable attention in recent times after decades of neglect, often known today under the names of the glottalic theory and the Nostratic theory.

Origin of the glottalic theory[edit]

In a work published in 1951, Pedersen pointed out that the frequency of b in Indo-European is abnormally low. Comparison of languages, however, shows that it would be normal if it had once been the equivalent voiceless stop p, which is infrequent or absent in many languages.

He also posited that the Indo-European voiced aspirates, bh dh gh, could be better understood as voiceless aspirates, ph th kh.

Pedersen therefore proposed that the three stop series of Indo-European, p t k, bh dh gh, and b d g, had at an earlier time been b d g, ph th kh, and (p) t k, with the voiceless and voiced non-aspirates reversed.

This theory attracted relatively little attention until the American linguist Paul Hopper (1973) and the two Soviet scholars Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov proposed, in a series of articles culminating in a major work by Gamkrelidze and Ivanov published in 1984 (English translation 1995), that the Indo-European b d g series had originally been a glottalized series, p' t' k'. Under this form, the theory has attracted wide interest. There seems to be a good chance that it will endure in one form or another.

Origin of the Nostratic theory[edit]

Pedersen seems to have first used the term "Nostratic" in an article on Turkish phonology published in 1903. The kernel of Pedersen's argument for Nostratic in that article was as follows (1903:560-561; "Indo-Germanic" = Indo-European):

Grønbech considers it possible p. 69 that the Turkish word for "goose" could be borrowed from Indo-Germanic (Osm. kaz Yak. xās Chuv. xur). There are in my view three possibilities with regard to this word: coincidence, borrowing, and kinship. One must also reckon with this last possibility. Very many language stocks in Asia are without doubt related to the Indo-Germanic one; this is perhaps valid for all those languages which have been characterized as Ural–Altaic. I would like to unite all the language stocks related to Indo-Germanic under the name "Nostratic languages." The Nostratic languages occupy not only a very large area in Europe and Asia but also extend to within Africa; for the Semitic-Hamitic languages are in my view without doubt Nostratic. With regard to the proof of the relationship of the Nostratic languages, not only must all root etymologies and in general all etymological frivolities be kept at a distance, but one should in general not concern oneself with heaping up a mass of material. One should rather limit oneself to the rational consideration of a series of pronouns, negatives, in part also numerals which can be traced through several language stocks (in Turkish one is reminded of the Indo-Germanic by the negation -ma, -mä and the word-initial interrogative particle m, the interrogative pronoun kim, the pronoun of the first person män, the verbal ending of the 1. sing. -m, 1. plur. -myz, -miz and the ending -jin in the 1. sing. of the "optative," very reminiscent of the Indo-Germanic subjunctive [with the optative affix -a-, -ä-], the pronoun of the 2. sing. sän [cp. the IdG. verbal ending -s], the causative formation with -tur- [cp. IdG.-tōr nomen agentis; the Indo-Germanic causative also appears as if it were derived from a nomina agentis of the φορός type], the nomina actionis like Orkh. käd-im "clothing," several numerals: Orkh.jiti "7," jitm-iš "70," [with j = IdG. s as in Proto-Turk. *jib- "approach," Osm. jyldyz "Star": to Indo-Germanic word for "sun," jat- "lie": IdG. word for "sit"]; Proto-Turk. bǟš "5" [with š = IdG. -que; cp. Osm. piš- "be cooked," IdG. *pequeti "cooks"] etc., etc.). I resist the temptation to enter into this question in more detail.

Pedersen’s last sentence should be understood as referring to the article he was writing, not the rest of his career. Although he defined the Nostratic family, he himself never produced the work of synthesis the concept seemed to call for. That would await the work of the Russian scholars Illich-Svitych and Dolgopolskyin the 1960s for its first iteration. Nevertheless Pedersen did not abandon the subject. He produced a substantial (if overlooked) article on Indo-European and Semitic in 1908. He produced a detailed argument in favor of the kinship of Indo-European and Uralic in 1933. In effect, the three pillars of the Nostratic hypothesis are Indo-Uralic, Ural–Altaic, and Indo-Semitic. Pedersen produced works on two of these three, so the impression is incorrect that he neglected this subject in his subsequent career. His interest in the Nostratic idea remained constant amid his many other activities as a linguist.

English "Nostratic" is the normal equivalent of German nostratisch, the form used by Pedersen in 1903, and Danish nostratisk (compare French nostratique). His 1931 American translator rendered nostratisk by "Nostratian," but this form did not catch on.

In his 1931 book, Pedersen defined Nostratic as follows (1931:338):

As a comprehensive designation for the families of languages which are related to Indo-European, we may employ the expression Nostratian languages (from Latin nostrās "our countryman").

In his view, Indo-European was most clearly related to Uralic, with "similar, though fainter, resemblances" toTurkish, Mongolian, and Manchu; to Yukaghir; and

to Eskimo (1931:338). He also considered Indo-European might be related to Semitic and that, if so, it must be related to Hamitic and possibly to Basque(ib.).

In modern terms, we would say he was positing genetic relationship between Indo-European and the Uralic,Altaic, Yukaghir, Eskimo, and Afro-Asiatic language families. (The existence of the Altaic family is controversial, and few would now assign Basque to Afro-Asiatic.)

However, in Pedersen's view the languages listed did not exhaust the possibilities for Nostratic (ib.):

The boundaries for the Nostratian world of languages cannot yet be determined, but the area is enormous, and includes such widely divergent races that one becomes almost dizzy at the thought. (...) The question remains simply whether sufficient material can be collected to give this inclusion flesh and blood and a good clear outline.

1893. "Das Präsensinfix n," in Indogermanische Forschungen 2, 285-332. 1895. Albanische Texte mit Glossar. Leipzig: S. Hirzel. (= Abhandlungen der Königlichen

Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 15.3.) 1897. Aspirationen i Irsk (doctoral dissertation, University of Copenhagen). Leipzig: Spirgatis. 1903. "Türkische Lautgesetze," in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen

Gesellschaft 57, 535-561. 1908. "Die indogermanisch-semitische Hypothese und die indogermanische

Lautlehre." Indogermanische Forschungen 22, 341-365. 1909-1913. Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen, 2 volumes. Göttingen:

Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. 1924. Sprogvidenskaben i det Nittende Aarhundrede. Metoder og Resultater. København:

Gyldendalske Boghandel. 1931. Linguistic Science in the Nineteenth Century: Methods and Results, translated from

the Danish by John Webster Spargo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. (English translation of Pedersen 1924. Reprinted in 1959 as The Discovery of Language: Linguistic Science in the Nineteenth Century, Bloomington: Indiana University Press; paperback edition 1962.)

1933a. Etudes lituaniennes. København: Ejnar Munksgaard. 1933b. "Zur Frage nach der Urverwandschaft des Indoeuropäischen mit dem

Ugrofinnischen." Mémoires de la Société finno-ougrienne 67, 308-325. 1938. Hittitisch und die anderen indoeuropäischen Sprachen. Det Kongelige Danske

Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser 25.2. København. 1941. Tocharisch vom Gesichtspunkt der indoeuropäischen

Sprachvergleichung. København: Ejnar Munksgaard. (Second edition 1949.) 1951. Die gemeinindoeuropäischen und die vorindoeuropäischen Verschlusslaute. Det

Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser 32.5. København.

References

Benveniste, Émile. 1935. Origines de la formation des noms en indo-européen. Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve.

Friedrich, Johannes. 1960. Hethitisches Elementarbuch, second edition, 2 volumes. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.

Gamkrelidze, Thomas V. and Vjačeslav V. Ivanov. 1995. Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans, 2 volumes. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. (Original Russian edition 1984.)

Hopper, Paul J. 1973. "Glottalized and murmured occlusives in Indo-European." Glossa 7.2, 141-166.

Koerner, Konrad. 1983. "Holger Pedersen: A sketch of his life and work." Introduction to A Glance at the History of Linguistics With Particular Regard to the Historical Study of Phonology by Holger Pedersen, translated from the Danish by Caroline C. Henriksen. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (Original Danish edition 1916.)

Martinet, André. 2005. Economie des changements phonétiques. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose. (Revised edition; original edition 1955.)

Orel, Vladimir. 1995. Albanian Etymological Dictionary. Leiden: Brill. Szemerényi, Oswald. 1996. Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Paul Hopper

Paul J. Hopper is an American linguist of British birth. In 1973, he proposed the glottalic theory [1] [2]regarding the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European consonant inventory, in parallel with

the Georgian linguist Tamaz Gamkrelidze and the Russian linguist Vyacheslav V. Ivanov. He later

also became known for his theory of emergent grammar (Hopper 1987), for his contributions to

the theory of grammaticalisation and other work dealing with the interface between grammar and

usage. He currently works as the Paul MellonDistinguished Professor of Humanities at

the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA.

Selected publications[edit]

(1973) Glottalized and murmured occlusives in Indo-European. Glotta 7: 141-166.

(1987) Emergent grammar. Berkeley Linguistics Society 13: 139-157. (Online on archive.org

- [1])

(1993) (with Elizabeth Closs Traugott) Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze

Tamaz (Thomas) Valeryanovich Gamkrelidze (Georgian: თამაზ ვალერიანის ძე

გამყრელიძე; Russian: Тама� з Валериа� нович Гамкрели� дзе) (born October 23, 1929) is a

distinguished Georgian linguist , orientalist public benefactor and Hittitologist, Academician(since

1974) and President (since February, 2005) of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (GAS), Doctor

of Sciences (1963), Professor (1964).

Gamkrelidze was born in Kutaisi, Georgian SSR. His brother Revaz Gamkrelidze is also an

Academician, a famous mathematician.

Tamaz Gamkrelidze graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the Tbilisi State

University (TSU) in 1952. Since 1964 Gamkrelidze has been a professor of this university, and

since 1966 the Head of the Chair of Structural and Applied Linguistics. In 1973-2006 he was a

Director of the Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies (Tbilisi). He is the author of many outstanding

works in the fields of Indo-European linguistics, Ancient languages, Theoretical linguistics,

Structural and Applied Linguistics and Kartvelology. He is a leading proponent of the glottalic

theory of Proto-Indo-European consonants.

In 1988-1995 he edited the Journal of the Russian Academy of Science "Voprosi Yazikoznanya".

He is a Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences (2006), Foreign

Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Corresponding Fellow of

the British Academy, Fellow of the European Society of Linguistics (in 1986-1988 President of

this Society), Corresponding Member of theAustrian Academy of Sciences, Academician of

the Russian Academy of Science, a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and

Science (2006), Doctor honoris causa of the Bonn University (Germany) and theUniversity of

Chicago (U.S.), Honorary Member of the Linguistic Society of America, etc. He has received

theLenin Prize (1988), the Humboldt International Prize (1989) and the Ivane Javakhishvili Prize

of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (1992). From 1992 to 2005 Gamkrelidze was a member of

the Parliament of Georgia.

Some of the main works of Tamaz Gamkrelidze[edit]

The Akkado-Hittite syllabary and the problem of the origin of the Hittite script, "Archiv

Orientalni" (vol. 29). 1960

Anatolian languages and the problem of Indo-European migration to Asia Minor, Studies in

General and Oriental Linguistics. Tokyo, 1970

Alphabetic writing and the old Georgian script. New York, Caravan Books, 1994

with V. Vs. Ivanov: Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A reconstruction and historical

analysis of a proto-language and a proto-culture (vols. I-II). Berlin / New York, 1994-1995

Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich IvanovVyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov (Russian: Вячесла� в Все� володович Ива� нов, born 21 August 1929,Moscow) is a prominent Soviet/Russian philologist and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for hisglottalic theory of Indo-European consonantism and for placing the Indo-European urheimat in the area of the Armenian Highlands and Lake Urmia.

Early life[edit]

Vyacheslav Ivanov's father was Vsevolod Ivanov, one of the most prominent Soviet writers. His mother was an actress who worked in the theatre of Vsevolod Meyerhold. His childhood was clouded by disease and war, which he spent in Tashkent evacuation.

Ivanov was educated at Moscow University and worked there until 1958, when he was fired on account of his sympathy with Boris Pasternak and Roman Jacobson. By that time, he had made some important contributions to Indo-European studies and became one of the leading authorities on Hittite language.

Career[edit]

During the early 1960s, Ivanov was one of the first Soviet scholars to take a keen interest in and developsemiotics. He worked with Vladimir Toporov on several linguistic monographs, including an outline ofSanskrit. In 1962 he joined Toporov and Juri Lotman in establishing the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School.

In the 1980s Ivanov worked with Tamaz Gamkrelidze on a new theory of Indo-European migrations, which was most recently advocated by them in Indo-European and Indo-Europeans (1995). He led the All-Union Library of Foreign Literature between 1989 and 1993 and held a seat in the Supreme Soviet of Russia. Simultaneously, he established the Institute of World Culture and held a chair in Theory and History of World Culture at the Moscow University.

Since the late 1990s Ivanov shares his time between Moscow (where he teaches in the Russian State University for the Humanities) and Los Angeles, where he delivers courses at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also worked as a professor in Stanford University and Yale University.

He was made a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2000, and he has been a Foreign Fellow of the British Academy since 1977.[1]

1.2 Other interests[edit]

In 1965 Vyacheslav Ivanov edited, wrote extensive scholarly comments, and published the first Russian edition of previously unpublished "Psychology of Art" by Lev Vygotsky (the work written in the first half of the 1920s). The second, extended and corrected edition of the book came out in

1968 and included another Vygotsky's unpublished work, his treatise on Shakespeare's Hamlet (written in 1915-1916). The first edition of the book was subsequently translated into English by Scripta Technica Inc. and released by MIT Press in 1971.

Apart from his scholarly pursuits, Vyacheslav Ivanov writes poetry. He also published several books of memoirs, including two on his acquaintances with Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova.

Selected publications[edit]

Vyacheslav V. Ivanov and Thomas Gamkrelidze, "The Early History of Indo-European Languages",Scientific American; vol. 262, N. 3, 110-116, March, 1990.

Gamkrelidze, Tamaz V.  & Vjacheslav V. Ivanov (1995). Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans: A reconstruction and historical analysis of a proto-language and a proto-culture. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-014728-9.

Eduard Prokosch (1876-1938), Oostenrijker (Indo-Europese, Proto-Germanist)

Prokosch taught German and Germanic philology at many American educational institutions,

including theUniversity of Chicago, the University of Texas, the University of Wisconsin–

Madison, Bryn Mawr College andNew York University.

Prokosch finished his career as the Sterling Professor of Germanic Languages at Yale University,

during which time he wrote his most influential work, A Comparative Germanic Grammar (1939),

which broke ground in thefields of Indo-European and Germanic studies.

Hoofdstuk 2 Adolf HoltzmannFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adolf Holtzmann (1810–1870) was a German professor and philologist.

Holtsmann was Professor of German Literature and of Sanskrit at the University of Heidelberg, and a notable philologist of his day.[1]

Holtzmann was the father-in-law of Albrecht Kossel, German biochemist and 1910 Nobel laureate, by his marriage to Holtzmann's daughter, Luise, in 1886.[1]

2.1 See also[edit]

Holtzmann's Law

2.2 References[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to: a  b Jones, Mary Ellen (September 1953). "Albrecht Kossel, A Biographical Sketch". Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine (National Center for Biotechnology Information) 26: 80–97. PMC 2599350. PMID 13103145.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "article name needed". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.

Hoofdstuk 3 Adolf HoltzmannAdolf Holtzmann (* 2. Mai 1810 in Karlsruhe; † 3. Juli 1870 in Heidelberg) war ein deutscher Germanist und Indologe.

Adolf Holtzmann von Theodor Mayerhofer (nach einer Photographie, 1887)

3.1 Inhaltsverzeichnis

  [Verbergen] 

1   Leben

2   Werke

3   Literatur

4   Weblinks

3.2 Leben[Bearbeiten]

Adolf Holtzmann, Bruder von Karl Julius Holtzmann, studierte in Halle und Berlin Theologie, wandte sich aber dann der Sprachwissenschaft zu, indem er sich mit Unterstützung der Regierung 1832 nach München, 1834 nach Paris begab.

1837 zum Erzieher der badischen Prinzen berufen, verweilte er eine Reihe von Jahren in dieser Stellung, bis er 1852 die Professur der deutschen und indischen Sprache an der Universität Heidelberg erhielt. Er starb hier am 3. Juli 1870.

3.3 Werke[Bearbeiten]

Seine Arbeiten gehören dem Gebiet der orientalischen Sprachen (Indisch und Altpersisch) wie dem der deutschen Sprache und Literatur an. Von jenen sind zu nennen seine Übersetzung des indischen Epos

Ramajana (Karlsruhe. 1841), die

Indischen Sagen (Karlsruhe), die Schrift

Über den griechischen Ursprung des indischen Tierkreises (1841) und die

Beiträge zur Erklärung der persischen Keilinschriften (Karlsruhe 1845, Heft 1); dem Gebiet

der deutschen Grammatik auf sprachvergleichender Grundlage gehören an:

Über den Umlaut (Karlsruhe 1843) und

Über den Ablaut (Karlsruhe 1844), der deutschen Literatur, seine Ausgabe der

althochdeutschen Übersetzung eines Traktats von Isidor (1836), seine

Untersuchungen über das Nibelungenlied (Stuttgart 1854), worin er der herrschenden

Ansicht von Karl Lachmann mit Erfolg entgegentrat, und woran sich außer der Streitschrift

Kampf um der Nibelungen Hort (1855) seine Ausgabe des

Nibelungenlieds (1857) und der

Klage ( 1859) sowie die Schulausgabe des

Nibelungenlieds (3. Aufl. 1874) anschlossen, endlich die Ausgabe des

Großen Wolfdietrich (Heidelberg 1865).

Großen Widerspruch fand sein Buch Kelten und Germanen (Stuttgart 1855), worin er die Identität beider Völker zu beweisen versuchte. SeineAltdeutsche Grammatik (Leipzig 1870-75, Bd. 1) blieb unvollendet.

Nach seinem Tod erschienen, von Alfred Holder herausgegeben: Germanische Alterthümer mit Text, Übersetzung und Erklärung von Tacitus Germania (Leipzig 1873); seine Vorlesungen über Deutsche Mythologie (1874) und Die ältere Edda, übersetzt und erklärt (1875).

3.4 Literatur[Bearbeiten]

Wilhelm Scherer : Holtzmann, Adolf. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 13,

Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, S. 16–18.

3.5 Weblinks[Bearbeiten]

 Commons: Adolf Holtzmann – Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien

Literatur von und über Adolf Holtzmann  im Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek

Hoofdstuk 4 Jakob JakobsenFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Jacob Jacobsen.

Jákup Jakobsen

Born February 22, 1864

Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

Died August 15, 1918 (aged 54)

Nationality  Faroese

Education Philologist

Title Dr. phil.

Dr. phil. Jakob (properly Jákup) Jakobsen, (* 22 February 1864 in Tórshavn,Faroe; † 15

August 1918 in Copenhagen), was a Faroese linguist as well as a scholar of literature. He was

the first Faroese person to earn a doctoral degree. The subject of his doctoral thesis was

the Norn language in Shetland.

4.1 Contents

  [hide] 

1   Life 2   Jakobsen and Faroese 3   Jakobsen and Shetland 4   References 5   External links

4.2 Life[edit]

Jakob Jakobsen's parents were Hans Nicolai Jacobsen from Torshavn, andJohanne Marie

Hansdatter from Sandoy. Jakob was the youngest of three children, having two older sisters. The

father H. N. Jacobsen, earned his living as a bookbinder as well as running a bookshop in

Tórshavn.

The original book shop was in the old town, but H. N. Jacobsen moved the shop in 1918, to a

central location further uptown, where it still stands today, retaining its traditional faroese grass

roof. Founded in 1865, H. N. Jacobsens Bókahandil [1]  is one of the oldest shops still in business in

the Faroe Islandstoday.

Jakob Jakobsen went to the “realskolen” school in Torshavn, where he showed a natural talent

for learning languages. At the age of thirteen he went to school in Denmark and finished college

in Herlufsholm in 1883. In 1891 he graduated with Danish as his main subject

and French and Latin as subsidiary subjects. In 1897 he got a doctor degree with his work “det

norrøne sprog på Shetland” (the Norn language in Shetland).

Later in life, one of Jakobsen's sisters played a great role in her brother's life in Copenhagen; and

after his death, she also translated his Shetland works into English, in accordance with

Jakobsen's own plans.

4.3 Jakobsen and Faroese[edit]

J. Jakobsen’s work within the field of Faroese folklore and oral poetry played an important role in

the rise of modern Faroese written literature. This is the case most of all with his collection of

Faroese legends and folktales, Færøske Folkesagn og Æventyr. He looked upon folk tales as a

kind of fictional literature, while the legends to him were a kind of source about earlyFaroese

history. He also collected oral poetry, worked with Faroese place-names and created

many neologisms. He was the first to point out some Celtic place-names in the Faroes, and is

also responsible for the grammar section and texts-samples in the 1891 Færøsk Anthologi edited

by V. U. Hammershaimb.

In 1898 J. Jakobsen proposed a new Faroese orthography based on a then new

science, phonetics. The principle of the 1898 orthography is that there must be a one to one

correspondence between phoneme and letter, and that the written language should be easy to

learn by children. Due to political controversy, the proposal was abandoned.

4.4 Jakobsen and Shetland[edit]

Dr. Jakob Jakobsen is a key figure in Shetland's culture.

As John J. Graham writes in his preface to the 2nd edition, his "Dictionary of the Norn Language

in Shetland is the unrivalled source-book of information on the origins and usage of the Shetland

tongue. Based on Jakobsen's fieldwork in Shetland during 1893-95 it first appeared in Danish in

four volumes between 1908 and 1921, and was subsequently published in English in two

volumes, 1928 and 1932. The Dictionary has established itself internationally as a major work of

scholarship in Scandinavian philology." In 1985 The Shetland Folk Society, of which Graham was

President at the time, succeeded in finding funds to reprint the two volume English edition in

facsimile.

When Jakobsen left Faroe for Leith near Edinburgh, his only knowledge of the language of

Shetland was drawn from Thomas Edmondston's glossary and those parts of George

Stewart's Shetland Fireside Tales that are written in dialect. In Edinburgh he met Gilbert Goudie,

and there he read "a valuable manuscript supplement" to Edmondston's work written by Thomas

Barclay. During his fieldwork in the isles, he interviewed a large number of Shetlandic speakers

and scholars, including Haldane Burgess, James Stout Angus, John Irvine, Robert

Jamieson (1827-1899), James Inkster, John Nicolson, and Laurence Williamson.

Jakobsen's correspondence with Goudie was edited by E. S. Reid Tait and published in 1953. In

1981, Roy Grønnebergpublished a study entitled Jakobsen and Shetland.

4.5 References[edit]

1. Jump up ̂  HNJ Bókahandil Tórshavn Føroyar Faroe Islands føroyskar bøkur føroyskt mentan bókmentir at bokhandil.fo

The Dialect and Place Names of Shetland. Two Popular Lectures, Lerwick: T. & J. Manson,

1897, 1926; reprinted as The Place Names of Shetland, 1936 London/Copenhagen; reprinted

1993, Shetland Library

An etymological dictionary of the Norn language in Shetland, London, 1928-1932; reprinted

Lerwick: The Shetland Folk Society, 1985

Greinir og ritgerðir, HNJ. Tórshavn 1957.

This article is based on http://shetlopedia.com/Jakob_Jakobsen a GFDL wiki.

Larsen, Kaj. 1991. "Hin fyrsti málreinsarin". Málting 9:12-19

Larsen, Kaj. 1994. Stavsetingaruppskot Jakobs Jakobsens. Varðin 61:7-41 Petersen Hjalmar P.

2007. Jakobsen's Orthography from 1889. To appear in a Conference book on Jakobsen.

4.6 External links[edit]

John J. Graham 's poem to Jakob Jakobsen is here[dead link]

H. N. Jacobsens Bókahandil ´s Homepage is here