Samuel Kleinschmidt

Samuel Peter Kleinschmidt ( grönländ. Samualip Kutdlilerfia, born February 27, 1814 Alluitsoq / Greenland; † February 8, 1886 in Neu-Herrnhut/Grönland ) was a German missionary of the Moravian Church and founder of the modern Greenlandic as a written language.

Youth and Education

Samuel Kleinschmidt was born as a son of the German Konrad missionary Kleinschmidt and his Danish wife Christina Petersen in Greenland. In the Saxon branch Kleinwelka he received a comprehensive education, was because of a speech impediment initially pharmacist. After intensive language training he overcame his disability and became employed in the South Jutland Christian community field as a geography teacher. The training started at the same time as a missionary he ended 1841.

Work and language research in Greenland

After his training Kleinschmidt returned to Greenland and became an assistant of the Moravian Church in Alluitsoq ( German: Lichtenau ). From 1846-48 he was a teacher in Akunnat ( German: Lichtenfels ), then in New Herrnhut. 1859 broke with the Brethren, and he went into the service of the Danish mission in Nuuk.

With his main work " grammar of Greenlandic language with theilweisem inclusion of Labradordialects " ( work is completed in 1846, printed in Berlin 1851) applies Kleinschmidt as the founder of a unified written language Greenland. In addition, work on zoology, history and geography, as well as translations of the Old and New Testament are made into Greenlandic. He was the patron of the Greenlandic language and culture and publicist in the newspaper Atuagagdliutit (founded in 1861). 1871 saw in Copenhagen Kleinschmidt large dictionary for Greenlandic language ( co -author: Steen Vittus Hold).

Honors

Kleinschmidt is in Greenland's capital Nuuk (Danish: Godthåb ) buried where he is also dedicated a plaque with Greenlandic and Danish inscription in the center, over which " Kleinschmidt's Pal " ( Kleinschmidt pile ) rises.

For his contributions to the Greenlandic culture and society Kleinschmidt has been honored in his lifetime: he was in 1882 awarded the Order of Dannebrog and was honored with an honorary doctorate from the Humboldt University. In 1986, a 35- Öre commemorative stamp of the Royal Danish and Greenlandic Post appeared with his portrait.