Hermann Osthoff (HeidICON 28885) (cropped)

Hermann Osthoff (18 April 1847, Billmerich – 7 May 1909, Heidelberg) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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. Lingui ...

. He was involved in Indo-European studies and the

Neogrammarian The Neogrammarians (German: ''Junggrammatiker'', 'young grammarians') were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound chang ...

school. He is known for formulating Osthoff's law, and published widely on Indo-European word-formation and morphology.

Life

Osthoff 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 ...

, Germanic philology, Sanskrit 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 ...

in Berlin, Tübingen and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr ...

. In 1869 he obtained his doctorate in Bonn as a student of

Hermann Usener Hermann Karl Usener (23 October 1834 – 21 October 1905) was a German scholar in the fields of philology and comparative religion. Life Hermann Usener was born at Weilburg and educated at its Gymnasium. From 1853 he studied at Heidelberg ...

. During his time in that city he became a member of the Burschenschaft Alemannia of Bonn. From 1871 onward, he taught classes at the gymnasium in Kassel. In 1875, he successfully completed his postdoctoral habilitation at the University of Leipzig, and in 1877, was named an associate professor of comparative linguistics and Sanskrit at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

. Shortly afterwards, he was granted full professorship at Heidelberg, where he later served as dean (1894/95) and vice-rector (1899–1900).Osthoff, Hermann
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, , S. 627 f. The main focus of his research was in Indo-European languages. Along with

Karl Brugmann Karl Brugmann (16 March 1849 – 29 June 1919) was a German linguist. He is noted for his work in Indo-European linguistics. Biography He was educated at the universities of Halle and Leipzig. He taught at the gymnasium at Wiesbaden and at Le ...

and

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 t ...

, he was a significant figure in the founding of the Neogrammarians. He was a vocal critic of a young Ferdinand de Saussure's pioneering work ''Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes'', in which the 20-year-old Saussure postulated the laryngeal theory in 1879. However, Saussure's theory was confirmed with the discovery of Hittite in the early 20th century.

Selected works

* ''Morphologische Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen'' (with Karl Brugmann); (6 volumes, 1878–1910) – Morphological studies in the field of Indo-European languages. * ''Das Verbum in der Nominalcomposition im Deutschen, Griechischen, Slavischen und Romanischen'', 1878 – The verb in nominal composition in German, Greek, Slavic and Romance. * ''Das physiologische und psychologische Moment in der sprachlichen Formenbildung'', 1879 – The physiological and psychological moment in linguistic morphogenesis. * ''Zur Geschichte des Perfects im Indogermanischen'', 1884 – History of perfects in Indo-European.Most widely held works by Hermann Osthoff
WorldCat Identities

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Osthoff, Hermann 1847 births 1909 deaths People from Unna People from the Province of Westphalia Linguists from Germany Historical linguists Linguists of Indo-European languages Heidelberg University faculty