Alois Walde (November 30, 1869 – October 3, 1924) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

. Alois Walde studied

classical philology Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

and

comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness ...

at the University of

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

where he was awarded a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in 1894. The year after, he became a state employee at the university library. In 1895, he was awarded his ''

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

'' and became a professor in 1904 at the University of

. 1909-1912, Walde was Professor of comparative linguistics at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...

, but returned in 1912 to

where he became the dean of faculty in 1914 and rector of the university in 1916. The year after, he became a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In 1922, he took up a professorship at

Albertina University The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

. In the same year, Walde accepted a professorship at Breslau University for 1924, but he died before he could take the new position.Walter Porzig: ''Alois Walde.'' In: ''Indogermanisches Jahrbuch.'' Volume 10, 1926, , pp. 421–428 (with photo and list of academic works) Walde contributed widely to the research on laryngeal theory and

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...

lexis Lexis may refer to: * Lexis (linguistics), the total bank of words and phrases of a particular language, the artifact of which is known as a lexicon *Lexis (Aristotle), a complete group of words in a language *LexisNexis, part of the LexisNexis onl ...

. His multi-volume dictionaries were printed in many editions, and are still in print today.

Selected academic works

* Alois Walde. ''Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch'' (= ''Indogermanische Bibliothek''. Abteilung 1: ''Sammlung indogermanischer Lehr- und Handbücher''. Reihe 2: ''Wörterbücher'', 1). Heidelberg: Winter University Press, 1906 (3rd revised and expanded edition by Johann Baptist Hofmann 1938–1954; 6th reprint edition 2007-8. 2 volumes. (vol. 1: ''A – L''), (vol. 2: ''M – Z'')). * Alois Walde. ''Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen.'' 3 vols. Edited by Julius Pokorny. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1927–1932 (reprint 1973, ).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walde, Alois Linguists from Germany 1869 births 1924 deaths