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