Max Leopold Wagner (17 September 1880,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

– 9July 1962,

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

) 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

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

, particularly known for his studies on the Sardinian language. He also carried out pioneering research on the

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in th ...

in Hispanic America. In a posthumous review of his three-volume ''Dizionario etimologico sardo'',

Ernst Pulgram Ernst Pulgram (September 18, 1915 – August 17, 2005) was an American linguist of Austrian origins whose main interest lay in the Italic and Romance languages. He is survived by his wife, linguist Frances McSparran. Born and educated in Vienna ...

wrote: ''It can only be hoped that ... there will arise ... men like Wagner: original thinkers, deep specialists, and great synthesizers of knowledge all at the same time.''

Biography

Wagner gained his doctorate from the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

, Germany; his thesis was entitled ''Lautlehre der südsardischen Mundarten'' (published in 1907). He then taught languages in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

, learning Arabic, Greek, Turkish and Romanian. He started to study Judaeo-Spanish and became interested in Hispanic studies, moving to Mexico in 1913 and subsequently travelling in Latin America. He returned to Germany after the start of the First World War, taking a position at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

. In the mid-1920s, he moved to Italy, spending most of his time in Rome and Naples, and working on the Italian linguistic atlas, ''AIS - Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz'', under

Karl Jaberg Karl Jaberg (4 April 1877, in Langenthal – 30 May 1958, in Bern) was a Swiss linguist and dialectologist. He studied Romance philology at the University of Bern, and furthered his education in Paris (1900/01), where his influences include ...

and

Jakob Jud Jakob Jud u:t(12 January 1882 in Wängi, Kanton Thurgau – 15 June 1952 in Seelisberg, Kanton Uri) was a Swiss Romance linguist ( Romanist). From 1922 to 1950 he taught classes in Romance philology and Old French literature at the Universi ...

. He held an academic position at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...

, Portugal (1947–51), as well as a guest professorship at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, USA (1948–49). He then moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked on his ''Dizionario etimologico sardo'', with the assistance of Raffaele Urciolo, until his death in 1962.

Research

Wagner did research in the context of the Sardinian language, also studying the

jargon Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...

s and dialects of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, Judaeo-Spanish,

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

and American Spanish. His comprehensive synthesis of American-Spanish linguistics, published in 1949, was the first extended study of the language. He also studied the relationship between the Berber languages and

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...

and in general conducted studies on the languages and cultures of the peoples of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

. He had a particular interest in argot, cant, and the idioms of those living on the margins of society, as evidenced in his essay ''Comments on the bogotanian caló'', a text about the manners of speech of impoverished children in Bogotá.

Selected works

* ''Fonetica storica del sardo'', by Max Leopold Wagner, ed. Trois, Cagliari, 1984 *''Dizionario etimologico sardo'' (1960, 1962, 1964) *''La lingua sarda'' (1951) *''Apuntaciones sobre el caló bogotano'' (195

*''Lingua e dialetti dell'America spagnola'' (1949) *''Historische lautlehre des sardischen'' (1941); ''Fonetica storica del sardo'', Italian translation by Giulio Paulis, ed. Trois, Cagliari, 1984 *''Caracteres generales del judeo-español de Oriente'' (1930) *''Die spanisch-amerikanische Literatur in ihren Hauptströmungen'' (1924) *''Amerikanisch-spanisch und Vulgärlatein'' (1920)

References

External links

* * Karl Jaberg, Jakob Jud, ''Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz'' (AIS)
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Online navigable version) Linguists from Germany German ethnologists 1880 births 1962 deaths University of Würzburg alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Academic staff of the University of Coimbra 20th-century linguists {{ethnologist-stub

Biography

Research

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links