Johannes Sass (also in German: Saß) born in Hamburg, died ) was a
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 ...
who specialized in the
Low German language. He obtained his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
in 1926 from the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...
.
Significance in Low German
Although
Low German has no official written form, Sass's dictionary of the language holds a similar authoritative place for the language that the
Duden
The Duden () is a dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880, and later by Bibliographisches Institut GmbH. The Duden is updated regularly with new editions appearing every four or five years. , ...
dictionary does for the
Standard High German language.
The diverse writing systems for
Low German caused Sass to develop his spelling rules which he published in 1935. In 1956 this led to the Fehrs-Gilde, an organization promoting the
Low German language, producing the 'Rules for
Low German spelling', which mainly followed the example of the
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...
laid down by Sass.
The
Johannes-Saß-Preis (Johannes Sass Prize) for scientific works about
Low German is named after Sass.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sass, Johannes
Low German
Linguists from Germany
1889 births
1971 deaths
German lexicographers
20th-century linguists
20th-century lexicographers
University of Hamburg alumni