Johannes Schmidt (linguist)

John Schmidt ( born July 29, 1843 in Prenzlau / Prussia, † July 4, 1901 in Berlin, full name John Frederick Henry Schmidt ) was a German linguist and leading representatives of the Berlin school of Indo-European Studies, is considered the founder of the " wave theory " in the comparative linguistics.

During his studies, he became in 1861 a member of the Bonner fraternity Franconia. Johannes Schmidt studied philology with a focus on Indo-European / Slavic and doctorate 1865. His professor and mentor was August Schleicher, who worked with him even after graduation and corresponded. After the teacher's examination, he was in 1866 tenured teacher at Luisenstädtischer Gymnasium Berlin. After the sudden death Schleicher he took over in 1868 the responsibility for his work The German language, which he re to 1888 of the second published in a revised version to the 5th edition. Among his first students was Ulrich von Wilamowitz- Moellendorff, who later in his memoirs, 1848-1914 (Berlin 1928, pp. 94-95 ) wrote appreciatively about Schmidt: " Another lecturer was John Schmidt, who did not come so close to us, but considered with respect was guilty. No one ... failed to realize that a mature and important researcher stood in it before us. "

In 1868 he became a professor of German and Slavic Studies at the Prussian Rhine University (today: Rheinische Friedrich- Wilhelms-Universität ) in Bonn, where it was first held in 1871 seminars on the Old Bulgarian ( Old Church Slavonic ). In the analysis of phylogenetic relationships of Indo-European languages ​​he founded in 1872, the view of the gradual spatial spread of linguistic innovations - in short called wave theory, which was directed against the dogma of neo-grammarians of the Ausnahmslosigkeit the sound laws. In 1873 he was for three years professor of philology at the Karl- Franzens- University of Graz. After that, he returned to Berlin, took a professorship at the Humboldt University in Berlin today and was in 1884 a full member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. In 1890 he was elected foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

Bibliography

  • History of the Indo-European Vocalismus. First Department. Weimar, H. Böhlau (1871 )
  • The Verwantschaftsverhältnisse the Indo-European languages. Weimar, H. Böhlau (1872 )
  • History of the Indo-European Vocalismus. Second Department. Weimar, H. Böhlau (1875 )
  • The plurals of the Indo-European Neutra. Weimar, H. Böhlau (1889 )
  • Critique of Sonantentheorie. A linguistic investigation. Weimar, H. Böhlau (1895 )
Wave model Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff Neogrammarian Integrated Authority File
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