Oswald Szemerényi
Oswald John Louis Szemerényi ( born September 7, 1913 in London, † December 29, 1996 in Freiburg) was a Hungarian Etymologe specializing in Indo-European studies.
His education was Szemerényi at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, and at the German universities of Heidelberg and Berlin. Strong influence on him was the Hungarian linguist Gyula Laziczius. In 1942 he obtained a position as a lecturer in Greek at the University of Budapest. In 1944 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on the unity of the Baltoslawischen, and in 1947 he became professor of comparative Indo-European studies in Budapest. In 1948 he went to England and worked until 1960 at Bedford College. From 1965 to 1981 Szemerényi was Professor of Linguistics at the Albert -Ludwigs- University of Freiburg. There he founded the Freiburg Linguistics Circle. This circle was strongly influenced by the Budenz circle, which was founded by Josef Budenz, a pioneer of the Finno-Ugric.