Harri Meier

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Harri Meier (born January 8, 1905 in Hamburg , † November 7, 1990 in Bonn ) was a German Romance philologist and etymologist .

Life

Meier studied Romance Philology in Hamburg (at Bernhard skull and Fritz Kruger ) and was there in 1927 with a thesis on contributions to the linguistic structure of the Iberian Peninsula and its historical justification (published Hamburg 1930) PhD . He was then a lecturer in Murcia , later assistant at the Ibero-American Institute of the University of Hamburg, and finally in 1934 assistant at the Romance seminar at the University of Rostock . There he completed his habilitation in 1935 with Fritz Schalk . From 1937 to 1940 he was a private lecturer in Rostock, then until 1941 in Leipzig.

From 1941 to 1945 he was first associate professor and then (1943) full professor in Leipzig . From 1943 to 1950 he was visiting professor in Lisbon, and in 1944 director of the German Scientific Institute there. From 1950 to 1954 he was a full professor in Heidelberg , and from 1954 until his retirement he was a full professor of Romance Philology in Bonn .

Meier was a corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (1955).

plant

Meier took the impulses for his linguistic research from an understanding of science, according to which only the insight into the relationships of time, space, linguistic forms of expression and the history of science prepares the ground for the further development of Romance studies. As a result, the Romansh perspective as a whole also played an important role for Meier in the context of individual linguistic studies. The methodological framework of the Romance etymology remained relatively homogeneous overall, even if there were marked divergences in the research concepts when there were fundamental differences in the assessment of linguistic development relationships. This was noticeable in the antagonism between Harri Meier, who basically favored Latin etymologies, and Gerhard Rohlfs , who often sought etymological explanations on the basis of pre-Roman substrate or Germanic superstrate effects.

Meier's principles also form the basis of his theory of language development on the Iberian Peninsula : Accordingly, there were two streams of Romanization that followed different routes. The first ran roughly from Tarraco along the Ebro valley to Cantabria . The second begins in Baetica in what is now Andalusia , runs from there to the west and then turns north along the Atlantic coast . It ended in Gallaecia- Asturica, today Galicia and Asturias . In this way it can be explained, for example, that a more sophisticated Latin was spoken in Baetica than in Tarraconensis . Traces of this higher language level can now be found in the Portuguese language . The theory can also explain the difference between Catalan - Aragonese and Portuguese - Asturian - Leonese . The Castilian therefore has a middle position.

Meier's literary interest was primarily in Cervantes, but he has also worked on Mérimée, Dante, Gil Vicente, Camoes and Jorge Amado. His Spanish Fairy Tales had a circulation of 75,000 in 1977. They even appeared on the market as a phonogram in 2000. The Portuguese fairy tales published in the series The Fairy Tales of World Literature also achieved high editions and were reprinted.

Meier's work is one of the most profitable studies in the world that were undertaken in the second half of the 20th century in the field of Romance etymological research. In addition, he is considered to be one of the great exponents of Ibero-Romance studies.

Meier was a member of Nazi organizations such as the SA . His scientific attitude was recognized.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his death, an exhibition was opened in summer 2015, which the Museum of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , the Harri-Meier-Freundeskreis and the Romance seminar had prepared in honor of Harri Meier.

Other works

  • The Origin of Romance Languages ​​and Nations , Frankfurt 1941, Ann Arbor 1980
  • Ensaios de filologia romanica , Lisboa 1948
  • The onomasiology of stupidity , Heidelberg 1972
  • New contributions to Romance etymology , Heidelberg 1975
  • Primary and Secondary Onomatopoeia and Other Studies on Romance Etymology , Heidelberg 1975
  • New Latin-Romance Etymologies , Bonn 1980
  • Latin-Romance etymologies , Wiesbaden 1981
  • The development of Latin vertere, versare in Romansh: Contributions to the history of an etymological extended family , Frankfurt 1981
  • Essays and drafts on Romance etymology , Heidelberg 1984
  • Notas criticas al DECH de Corominas , Santiago de Compostela 1984
  • Principles of etymological research: Romance insights , Heidelberg 1986
  • Etymological notes: Impulses and impulses , Bonn 1988
  • (Ed.) (With Hans Sckommodau) Word and text. Festschrift for Fritz Schalk , Frankfurt 1963
  • Adjetivo e adverbio. In: Ensaios de Filología Românica. Lisboa 1948, pp. 55-114

literature

  • Language and history: Festschrift for Harri Meier on his 65th birthday , ed. by Eugenio Coseriu and Wolf-Dieter Stempel , Munich 1971
  • Romanica Europaea et Americana: Festschrift for Harri Meier, January 8, 1980 , ed. by Hans Dieter Bork , Artur Greive and Dieter Woll , Bonn 1980
  • In memoriam Harri Meier: Speeches held on June 8, 1991 at the memorial ceremony of the Philosophical Faculty of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn / by Helmut Keipert u. a., Bonn 1992
  • Harri Meier - stations in his life and work; Hamburg - Rostock - Leipzig - Lisbon - Heidelberg - Bonn / Interviews with Willi Hirdt , ed. by Hans Dieter Bork, Romance Studies Seminar at the University of Cologne, Cologne 2005 (with a complete list of publications)
  • Souvenirs: for the 100th birthday of Harri Meier (1905 - 1990) . Ed .: Harri-Meier-Freundeskreis. Editing: Horst and Wiltrud Bursch, Bornheim 2005
  • Franz Josef Hausmann , Against the Trend in Etymological Research. Two new books by Harri Meier, in: Göttingische Gelehre Anzeige 235, 1983, pp. 103-116
  • Dieter Woll in: Romanische Forschungen 102, 1990, pp. 443–445
  • Wolf-Dieter Stempel in: Archive for the Study of Modern Languages ​​and Literatures 227, 1991, pp. XIII-XVI
  • Horst Bursch in: Verba 18 (1991), pp. 719-724

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. See Hans Dieter Bork / Artur Greive / Dieter Woll, p. 3 (bibliographical information above under "Literature")
  2. Cf. Wolfgang Schweickard, Etymological and word-historical research and description of the Romance languages: Italian and Sardinian. Etude et description étymologique et historique du lexique des langues romanes: l´italien et le sarde, in: Romance language history. Histoire linguistique de la Romania. An international handbook on the history of the Romance languages. Manuel international d´histoire linguistique de la Romania. 1st subband. Tome 1 , ed. by Gerhard Ernst / Martin-Dietrich Gleßgen / Christian Schmitt / Wolfgang Schweickard. Walter Gruyter: Berlin - New York 2003, p. 348
  3. http://www.romling.uni-tuebingen.de/coseriu/publi/coseriu260.pdf
  4. See in detail Peter Blumenthal: In memoriam Harri Meier. In: DRV-Mitteilungen (1991/1), p. 56
  5. See Spanish fairy tales , translated by Harri Meier and Felix Karlinger. Afterword by Harri Meier. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1977
  6. See Spanish fairy tales , read by Engelbert von Nordhausen. Edited and transmitted by Harri Meier and Felix Karlinger. Johannisthal Synchron / Audio Books: Berlin 2000
  7. See Portuguese Fairy Tales , ed. by Harri Meier and Dieter Woll. Diederichs, Munich 1993
  8. See Steven N. Dworkin, University of Michigan / USA, in: Romance Philology . Volume XLII, Number 4, May 1989, p. 447
  9. See Ramón Lorenzo, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela / Spain, in: Verba 6, 1979, p. 415
  10. Harri Meier , in the Leipzig professor catalog
  11. Cf. Frank-Rutger Hausmann : Devoured by the vortex of events. German Romance Studies in the “Third Reich”. Frankfurt / Main 2008, p. 379 et passim. See also de.wikipedia.org article "Westforschung" - as of October 17, 2015
  12. uni-bonn.tv, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWTLL-0LKbI&feature=youtu.be