August Pott

August Friedrich Pott ( born November 14, 1802 in Nettelrede; † July 5, 1887 in Halle ( Saale) ) was a German linguist.

Life and work

The son of a preacher did not satisfy the study of theology well, so he devoted himself at the University of Göttingen in particular the subjects of philology, philosophy and history. Pott particularly studied Hebrew, Greek and Latin, but also heard physics and chemistry. He took a job as a collaborator at the high school Celle and his doctorate in 1827 at the University of Göttingen with a thesis De relationibus quae praepositionibus in Linguis denotantur. However, the lessons are not filled in him, so that he (especially Sanskrit ) continued his linguistic studies at the University of Berlin. On 1 May 1830, Pott his habilitation in 1833, he was appointed associate professor at the University of Halle for general linguistics and in 1838 promoted to full professor.

Pott read primarily of general linguistics and linguistic philosophy and historical grammar. He also gave special lectures to the Sanskrit and Chinese and hieroglyphs. 1845 Pott founded together with other scholars, the German Oriental Society. The focus of his research were the problems of Indo-European Studies. Pott turned to the Grimms' method of etymological Lautvergleichung on Indo-European issues and developed methods for comparative analysis of root formation. His first published in 1833 Etymological research (reprint 1999), he built a six -volume work on the Indo-European languages ​​, especially via the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian and Gothic from ( 1859-1876 ). He published a three -volume work on personal and place names, several studies of number words (1847-1859) and a prejudice-free two -volume work on The Gypsies in Europe and Asia, taking into account the then " argot " (1844 /45). An overview of the contemporary state of linguistics offers Potts introduction to general linguistics (1884 ).

Again and again, Pott turned against the instrumentalisation of Linguistics and mystical interpretations (including anti - Kaulen: Or mystical ideas of the origin of nations and languages ​​, 1863). He also rejected the racist speculation Arthur de Gobineau on the inequality of the human races justified as not sufficiently back ( The inequality of human races mainly on linguistic Standtpunkte, with special consideration of the Count of Gobineau same works: with an overview of the language situation of the peoples, an anthropological experiment, 1856). Potts pioneering work in linguistics found recognition; he was awarded the Red Eagle Order, Second Class, the Russian St. Stanislaus I. Class with ribbon and star of the Order Pour le Mérite, as well as for Sciences and Arts. 1870 appointed him the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and foreign member.

His son Hermann Richard Pott (1844-1903) was a pioneer physician a name.

His guardian and uncle, Georg Heinrich Deicke, which he in 1833 his work etymological researches devoted to the field of Indo-European languages ​​.

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