Graziadio Isaia Ascoli
Graziadio Isaia Ascoli (* July 16, 1829 in Gorizia / Gorizia, Illyria; † January 21, 1907 in Milan ) was an Italian linguist and orientalist.
Without having a formal higher education received, he wrote in 1854 as a self-taught his first important work on the languages of the East. In 1860 he became a professor of linguistics at the Accademia scientifico - letteraria in Milan and established a new research areas for Comparative Literature, Romance languages and Sanskrit.
Especially important were his findings in the study of the relationship between Indo-European and Semitic languages. Pioneering work he did in the study of the languages of the Roma and Sinti, and the Celtic languages. In Italy he is known for his studies of the Italian dialects and dialects, which he systematically classified for the first time. Here he leaned in the Italian language question ( questione della lingua ) from the propagated by Manzoni florentine embossed default language and called for a balancing of the dialects. In German-speaking particularly his work on sound change in the Indo-European languages, and its results have been used as Romanist attention.
In 1873 he founded the linguistic journal Archivio italiano glottologico.
The Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, he was a member since 1875, the Accademia della Crusca since 1895. Elected him in 1887 the Prussian Academy of Sciences, 1895 Kungliga Vetenskaps -och Vitterhetssamhället i Göteborg to their corresponding member. Since 1906 he was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.
In 1889 he was appointed Senator of the Kingdom.