Johannes Schmidt (Linguist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emil Teschendorff: Johannes Schmidt , 1868
Johannes Schmidt 1901

Johannes Schmidt (* July 29, 1843 in Prenzlau / Prussia ; † July 4, 1901 in Berlin ; full name Johannes Friedrich Heinrich Schmidt ) was a German linguist and leading representative of the Berlin School of Indo-European Studies , is considered the founder of the " wave theory " in the comparative linguistic research .

Life

After graduating from high school in Stettin , the then 17-year-old began to study classical philology at the University of Bonn with Friedrich Ritschl and Otto Jahn in the summer semester of 1861 . In the same year he joined the Frankonia fraternity in Bonn . at. For the winter semester of 1862/63 he moved to Jena , where August Schleicher , the leading Indo-Europeanist at the time , taught, from whom Schmidt also received his doctorate in 1865. After Schleicher's sudden death in 1868 he took over responsibility for his work Die Deutsche Sprache , which he reissued in a revised version by 1888 from the 2nd to the 5th edition.

After a year-long stay in Berlin , mainly devoted to Sanskrit studies, Schmidt returned to Bonn. There he completed his habilitation on June 29, 1868 for comparative grammar of the Indo-European languages ​​and initially taught as a private lecturer, from the summer semester of 1873 as an associate professor. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was one of his first students , who later wrote about Schmidt in his memoirs 1848–1914 (Berlin 1928, pp. 94–95): “Another private lecturer was Johannes Schmidt, who did not come close to us, but was viewed with due respect. ... Nobody misunderstood that in him a mature and important researcher was standing before us. ” In analyzing the relationships between the Indo-European languages , Schmidt founded in 1872 the notion of the gradual spatial spread of linguistic innovations - called wave theory for short , which went against the theorem of the young grammarians of the exemption of the sound laws . In 1873, shortly after his marriage to Luise Schwabe, he was offered a full professorship in comparative linguistics and Sanskrit at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz . Three years later he moved to Berlin, took over a professorship at what is now the Humboldt University in Berlin, and from 1884 became a full member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences . In 1890 he was elected a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Johannes Schmidt died on July 4, 1901 after a heart attack , just a few weeks before his 58th birthday . Until recently he worked as a university lecturer in Berlin and had offered a lecture on Gothic grammar from a comparative perspective during the current semester. Schmidt was buried in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery in Charlottenburg (today's district of Berlin-Westend ). The grave has not been preserved.

Fonts

  • The root "ak" in Indo-European . With a foreword by August Schleicher. H. Böhlau, Weimar 1865.
  • On the history of Indo-European vocalism. First department. H. Böhlau, Weimar 1871.
  • The Relationships of the Indo-European Languages. H. Böhlau, Weimar 1872.
  • On the history of Indo-European vocalism. Second division. H. Böhlau, Weimar 1875.
  • The plural formations of the Indo-European neuter. H. Böhlau, Weimar 1889.
  • Critique of the Sonant Theory. A linguistic investigation. H. Böhlau, Weimar 1895.

literature

  • E. Zupitza: Johannes Schmidt . In: Biographisches Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde, Vol. 24, 1901, pp. 145–155.
  • H. Zimmer : Schmidt, Johannes . In: Biographisches Jahrbuch und Deutscher Nekrolog, Vol. 6, 1901 (1904), pp. 247-252.
  • L. Zeil: Schmidt, Johannes . In: Ernst Eichler u. a. (Ed.), Slavic Studies in Germany from the Beginnings to 1945. Ein biographisches Lexikon, Bautzen 1993, pp. 349–351.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official directory of the staff and students at the Königlich Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn for the summer semester of 1861 .
  2. ^ Directory of the old gentlemen of the Bonn fraternity "Frankonia". of September 1, 1901, p. 8.
  3. ^ Directory of teachers, authorities, officials and students on the Grand Duke. Herzogl. S. General University of Jena in the summer semester of 1864 .
  4. ^ Directory of professors and lecturers at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818 - 1968 , ed. by Otto Wenig, Bonn 1968.
  5. ^ Official directory of the staff and students at the Royal Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn for the summer semester of 1873
  6. ^ Ferdinand Runkel: Johannes Schmidt † . In: Berliner Tageblatt , July 5, 1901, evening edition, p. 1.
  7. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 480.

Web links

Wikisource: Johannes Schmidt (Linguist)  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmidt, Johannes Friedrich Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German linguist
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Prenzlau , Prussia
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1901
Place of death Berlin