Albert Thumb

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Albert Thumb

Albert Joseph Gustav Thumb (born May 18, 1865 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † August 14, 1915 there ) was a German linguist and Neo-Graecist .

family

Albert Thumb was the son of the architect Albert Alois Thumb (* July 10, 1838 Stockach , † August 26, 1886 ibid). His mother was Ida geb. Schanzenbach (born October 24, 1839 in Mingolsheim ) a cousin to the prelate Leonhard Schanzenbach . The wedding took place on April 26, 1864 in Mingolsheim. Albert's grandfather Alois Thumb is mentioned in the documents as the foundation builder and his wife as Anna Barbara Bader. No further family data are known.

Life

After attending the humanistic grammar school in Freiburg im Breisgau (1875-1884), Thumb studied from the winter semester 1884/1885 to the end of the winter semester 1885/1886 there with Karl Brugmann . In the summer semester of 1886 he went to Heidelberg , where he mainly studied Indo-European linguistics with Hermann Osthoff , and for the winter semester of 1886/1887 he moved to Leipzig for two semesters , where he again studied with Karl Brugmann. In the summer semester of 1888, he completed his doctorate in comparative linguistics and classical philology with Rudolf Thurneysen in Freiburg im Breisgau. In the summer semester 1889 he went to Berlin Department of Oriental languages to modern Greek learning. In February 1889 he passed the state examination in classical philology in Karlsruhe .

At the end of October 1889 he went on his first study trip to Greece , which mainly served to deepen and improve his knowledge of modern Greek. In addition, he made language studies, the results of which flowed into his “Handbuch der Neo-Greek Folk Language” as well as into the habilitation thesis and the habilitation lecture that he wrote after his return to Germany in July 1890. The trip to Greece was followed by an internship as a middle school teacher at a Freiburg grammar school and the habilitation (1891) in the subjects of comparative linguistics and modern Greek . From 1891 he taught first as a private lecturer and later as an associate professor (from 1895) linguistics and modern Greek at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg and was also active as a grammar school teacher until 1901 .

He undertook a second trip to the Orient from March to May 1894. Its main purpose was to collect material on folklore and the language of the modern Greeks. In 1901 Thumb became an associate professor in Marburg ; in the winter semester of 1909/1910 he followed a call to the professorship for comparative linguistics at the Kaiser Wilhelms University of Strasbourg . In July 1915 he returned seriously ill to his native Freiburg, where he died on August 14, 1915. His scientific estate was bought by a friend and given to the linguistic department of the University of Freiburg.

Thumb's work includes studies on general linguistics, quantitative linguistics, the Indo-European languages ​​(here Sanskrit in particular ) and studies on modern Greek language and folklore.

Works (so far only a small excerpt)

Font directory

  • List of the writings of Albert Thumb. In: Indo-Germanisches Jahrbuch 8 (1920/1921), pp. 272–277 (without indication of the author).

Linguistic work

  • together with Karl Marbe : Experimental studies on the psychological foundations of linguistic analogy formation. Engelmann, Leipzig 1901. (Reprint with an introduction by David D. Murray, John Benjamin, Amsterdam 1978. ISBN 90-272-0971-5 .)
  • Experimental psychology in the service of linguistics. In: Meeting reports of the Society for the Promotion of the Entire Natural Sciences in Marburg , No. February 2, 1907, pages 11-23. University printing house Joh.Aug. Koch, Giessen 1908.
  • Experimental psychology and linguistics. A contribution to methodology. In: Germanisch-Romanische monthly 3, 1911, pages 1–15; 65-74.

Neo-Graecist works

  • Manual of the modern Greek vernacular. Grammar, texts, glossary. Published by Karl J. Trübner, Strasbourg 1895, (online) . Second, improved and enlarged edition. Published by Karl J. Trübner, Strasbourg 1910, (online) .
  • Grammar of the modern Greek vernacular. GJ Göschen, Berlin 1915. 2nd, completely revised and expanded edition by Johannes E. Kalitsunakis . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1928

literature

  • Georgios N. Chatzidakis : Albert Thumb. In: Indo-European Yearbook IV (1916). Pp. 235-241.
  • Brita Kotrasch: Albert Thumb - His life and work: The "Handbook of the Modern Greek Folk Language" in his letters. In: Göttingen Contributions to Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology 4-5 (2004-2005), pp. 121–149. online ( Memento from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 25 kB)
  • Karl-Heinz Best and Brita Kotrasch: Albert Thumb (1865–1915). In: Glottometrics 9 (2005), pp. 82–84 (PDF full text ). online ( Memento from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Wikisource: Albert Thumb  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Thumb came from a family of architects from Vorarlberg
  2. ^ OFB Mingolsheim
  3. ↑ Karl-Heinz Best: Rhythmic units in ancient Greek. In: Göttinger Contributions to Linguistics 13, 2006, pages 73-76. The tests are based on data from Thumb.
personal data
SURNAME Thumb, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thumb, Albert Joseph Gustav (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German linguist and neo-Greekist
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1915
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau