Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper

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Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper (born July 7, 1907 in 's-Gravenhage , † November 14, 2003 in Zeist ) was a Dutch Indologist or Indo-Europeanist .

life and work

Kuiper studied Latin and Greek, Sanskrit and Indo-European Linguistics at the University of Leiden . One of his teachers was Willem Caland . In 1934 he completed his dissertation on nasal presentations in Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages. Then he took a job as a Latin and Greek teacher in Jakarta , already influenced by Indian culture. In 1939 he was appointed professor of Sanskrit at the University of Leiden. His teaching spectrum included Vedic and Classical Sanskrit as well as Middle Indian and comparative Indo-European linguistics. One of his students was Jan Willem de Jong . Together with him he founded the renowned Indo-Iranian Journal . In 1984 the Austrian Academy of Science elected him a corresponding member.

Kuiper has produced groundbreaking results for Indo-European studies and Veda research , in particular Ṛgveda research , and “is characterized by a versatility with which almost everything that is somehow related to the language and cultural world of India [in a certain sense] was built: the Indo-European Basics as well as the old Iranian close relationship, the non-Indo-European language families of India as well as the certificates for a pan-Indian ' language federation '; also essentials on religion and mythology as well as on cultural history in general ” .

This also included the questions of what influence the Indo-European laryngals had on Vedic phonology, the nominal and verbal system, as well as on the Sandhi of the Vedic poetic language. At that time the laryngeal theory was still rejected in large circles of historical linguistics. The reorganization of Indo-European morphology away from the root class principle, going back to Ferdinand de Saussure , towards accent and ablaut classes is the result of his work Notes on Vedic noun-inflection . In the letter of congratulations from the Austrian Academy on Kuiper's 80th birthday it says: "Modern Indo-European Studies ... regards you as one of its ancestors".

He has also worked out a lot about the structure of the Ṛgvedic religion. His avestical works make it clear, among other things, how closely the Avesta is related to the Veda. One focus of his work is the investigation of the substrates of Dravidian and Austro-Asian languages in the ancient Indian texts, a topic that has certain implications for the ethnographic conditions of the time, especially in connection with the debate about the migration of the Migrationryas .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Mayrhofer, Kuiper , p. 502
  2. ↑ Mayrhofer, op.cit., P. 508

Publications (selection)

  • The Indo-European nasal presentia. An attempt at a morphological analysis . Amsterdam 1937
  • Notes on Vedic noun-inflection . Amsterdam 1942 [= Selected writings , pp. 439-530]
  • Shortening of final vowels in the Rigveda . Amsterdam 1955 [= Selected writings , pp. 284-320]
  • The genesis of a linguistic area . In: Indo-Iranian Journal 6 (1962), pp. 52–64 [= Selected writings , pp. 78–99]
  • Varuṇa and Vidūṣaka. On the origin of the Sanskrit drama . Amsterdam [etc.] 1979
  • Ancient Indian cosmogony. Essays selected and introduced by John Irwin . Delhi 1983
  • Aryans in the Rigveda . Amsterdam [etc.] 1991
  • Selected writings on Indian linguistics and philology . Ed. by A. Lubotsky , MS Oort, M. Witzel . Amsterdam [etc.] 1997 (Leiden Studies in Indo-European 8), ISBN 90-420-0235-2

See also

literature

  • Tatjana Elizarenkova : FBJ Kuiper: Fundamental directions of his scholarly work . In: Numen 34.2 (1987), pp. 145-178
  • Jan Gonda : Indology in the Netherlands. Leiden 1964
  • Manfred Mayrhofer : FBJ Kuiper . In: Almanach / Austrian Academy of Sciences 154 (2003/2004), pp. 503-510
  • Rüdiger Schmitt: [Review by:] Selected writings on Indian linguistics and philology. 1997. In: Kratylos 45 (2000), pp. 84-88
  • Michael Witzel : FBJ Kuiper (1907-2003) . In: Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 11.1 (2004), pp. 1–17 [= Indo-Iranian Journal 47 (2004), pp. 173–191] ( PDF )
  • Bibliographies in: Pratidānam . Festschrift for the 60th birthday, ed. by JC Heestermann. The Hague 1968, pp. XV-XXIV [by Akira Yuyama], and in: The Indo-Iranian Journal 19 (1977), pp. 1-4, 30 (1987), p. 159 f., 40 (1997), P. 101 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kuiper, Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch indologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH The hague
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 2003
Place of death Zeist