Franz Felix Adalbert Kuhn

Franz Felix Adalbert Kuhn ( born November 19, 1812 in Konigsberg in Neumark, † May 5, 1881 in Berlin ) was an Indo-Europeanist and mythologist. He is considered the founder of the linguistic paleontology and comparative mythology. He was also director of the Köllnischen Gymnasium in Berlin and member of the Academy of Sciences.

Life

During his student period 1827-1833 on the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin Kuhn showed an above-average interest in languages ​​and brought in the self-study the basics of Sanskrit at. Later, he studied philology at the University of Berlin. After receiving his doctorate in 1837, he initially joined as Family at a spot on the Köllnischen Gymnasium in Berlin. In 1841 he was a teacher there. 1856 he was appointed professor and in 1870 Director of the Institute. 1872 took him to the Berlin Academy of Sciences, as a member. He was buried in 1881 at St. Peter's Cemetery in Berlin. His grave was leveled at the end of the 20th century.

Teaching

With his research he created the essential basis for the comparative linguistics. So he developed in 1845 to ancient history of Indo-European peoples, the foundations of later designated as linguistic paleontology science branch. Kuhn meant by this attempt to explore the characteristics of a primitive culture on the basis of Indo-European reconstruction of Indo-European terms. He included, how far can terms such as "seed ", " field ", " mowing " or " grain " etymologically traced back to a common root. In this way, the earliest emergence of certain cultural concepts demonstrate how agriculture. Through a broad comparison of the Indo-European languages ​​, a common hypothetical basic vocabulary can be so create. The elements of this basic vocabulary allow Kuhn statements about a culture be taken from the present no direct written evidence. Although his theories are no longer fully preserved today in this form, Kuhn was so much yet to justify the Indo-European archeology at.

Another focus of his work was the comparative study of fairy tales, legends and myths. Inspired by Jacob Grimm in 1835 published German mythology, he himself began to collect legends and customs, and to publish in several works in the 1840s and 1850s. Later he turned then except Germanic sources, especially the Rig Veda, too. The findings of this research took Kuhn 1859 in his major work, The Descent of the fire and the gods potion together, which is considered the first comprehensive presentation of a comparative mythology today.

With his last work over-development stages of the myths he finally wrote in 1873 a methodology of myths research. In it, he explains the origin of Indo-European myths as a linguistic phenomenon with special regard to polysemy and homonymy.

Of particular importance are the by him from 1852 published Journal of Comparative philology and the 1862 adjoining contributions to comparative linguistic research in the field of the Aryan, Celtic and Slavic languages. Both periodicals merged in 1875 to Journal of comparative linguistic research in the field of Indo-European languages ​​, which was continued after his death by his son Ernst.

Works

• For the early history of Indo-European peoples, Berlin 1845
• Märkische legends and fairy tales, Berlin 1843
• North German word (along with William Schwartz), Leipzig 1848
• Say, customs and tales from Westphalia, 2 volumes, Leipzig 1859
• Stages of development of myths, Berlin 1874