Friedrich Kluge (21 June 1856 – 21 May 1926) was a German

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and educator. He is known for the Kluge

etymological dictionary An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' and ''Webster's'', will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology. E ...

of the

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

(''Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache''), which was first published in 1883.

Biography

Kluge was born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. He studied

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 ...

and classical and modern philologies at the universities of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

and

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

. As a student, his instructors were

August Leskien August Leskien (; 8 July 1840 – 20 September 1916) was a German linguist active in the field of comparative linguistics, particularly relating to the Baltic and Slavic languages. Biography Leskien was born in Kiel. He studied philology at the ...

Georg Curtius Georg Curtius (April 16, 1820August 12, 1885) was a German philologist and distinguished comparativist. Biography Curtius was born in Lübeck, and was the brother of the historian and archeologist Ernst Curtius. After an education at Bonn and ...

, Friedrich Zarncke and

Rudolf Hildebrand Heinrich Rudolf Hildebrand (13 March 1824 – 28 October 1894) was a German studies, Germanist, contributor to, and then, editor of the Brothers Grimm, Grimm brothers' ''Deutsches Wörterbuch''. He also wrote on the history of German folksongs, and ...

at Leipzig and

Heinrich Hübschmann Johann Heinrich Hübschmann (1 July 1848 – 20 January 1908) was a German philologist. Life Hübschmann was born on 1 July 1848 at Erfurt. He studied Oriental philology at Jena, Tübingen, Leipzig, and Munich; in 1876 he became professor of Ira ...

, Bernhard ten Brink and Erich Schmidt at the University of Strasbourg.Kluge, Friedrich
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, , S. 140 f. He became a teacher of English and German philology at Strassburg (1880), an assistant professor of German at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

in 1884, a full professor in 1886, and in 1893 was appointed professor of German language and literature at Freiburg as a successor to

Hermann Paul Hermann Otto Theodor Paul (August 7, 1846, Salbke – December 29, 1921, Munich) was a German philologist, linguist and lexicographer. Biography He studied at Berlin and Leipzig, and in 1874 became professor of German language and literature in t ...

. A

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...

sound law A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...

that he formulated in a paper in 1884 is now known as

Kluge's law Kluge's law is a controversial Proto-Germanic sound law formulated by Friedrich Kluge. It purports to explain the origin of the Proto-Germanic long consonants ''*kk'', ''*tt'', and ''*pp'' (Proto-Indo-European lacked a phonemic length distinction ...

. He died in Freiburg.

Works

* ''

Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache The ''Etymological Dictionary of the German Language'' (german: Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache) is a reference book for the history of the German language, and was one of the first books of its kind ever written. Originally written ...

'' (1881; 10th edition, 1924; 25th edition, 2011). * ''Stammbildungslehre der altgermanischen Dialekte'' (2d edition, 1899). * ''Von Luther bis Lessing, sprachgeschichtliche Aufsätze'' (4th edition, 1904). * ''Angelsächsisches Lesebuch'' (3d edition, 1902). * ''Deutsche Studentensprache'' (1895).
''English Etymology''
in collaboration with Frederick Lutz (1898). * ''Rothwelsch, Quellen und Wortschatz der Gaunersprache'' (1901). * ''Mittelenglisches Lesebuch'', glossary by Arthur Kölbing (1904; 2d edition, 1912). For

's "''Grundriss der germanischen Philologie''" he wrote "''Vorgeschichte der altgermanischen Dialekte''" (1897) and "''Geschichte der englischen Sprache''" (1899). In 1900 he founded the journal "''Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung''".Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung
SearchWorks Catalog

Notes

References

Portraits of Linguists and their studies in the area of the Old Germanic Languages
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kluge, Friedrich 1856 births 1926 deaths Writers from Cologne German lexicographers Etymologists German philologists University of Jena faculty University of Freiburg faculty German male non-fiction writers

Biography

Works

See also

Notes

References