Maurice Bloomfield, Ph.D.,

LL.D. Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...

(February 23, 1855 – June 12, 1928) was an Austrian-born American

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 Sanskrit scholar.

Biography

He was born Maurice Blumenfeld in

Bielitz Bielsko (german: Bielitz, cs, Bílsko) was until 1950 an independent town situated in Cieszyn Silesia, Poland. In 1951 it was joined with Biała Krakowska to form the new town of Bielsko-Biała. Bielsko constitutes the western part of that to ...

( pl, Bielsko), in what was at that time

Austrian Silesia Austrian Silesia, (historically also ''Oesterreichisch-Schlesien, Oesterreichisch Schlesien, österreichisch Schlesien''); cs, Rakouské Slezsko; pl, Śląsk Austriacki officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, (historically ''Herzogth ...

(today it is in Poland) to Jewish parents. His sister was

Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler (July 16, 1863 – August 20, 1927) was an Austrian-born U.S. pianist. Biography Zeisler was born Fannie Blumenfeld on July 16, 1863, in Bielitz, Austrian Silesia, to Jewish parents. She emigrated to the United States ...

, and the

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 ...

Leonard Bloomfield was his nephew. He married Rosa Zeisler in 1885, and had a son and a daughter; Rosa died in 1920. In 1921, he married Helen Scott. He went to the United States in 1867, and 10 years later graduated from Furman University,

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway bet ...

. He then studied Sanskrit at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

, under W. D. Whitney, and at Johns Hopkins University. He was part of the second graduating class to earn the PhD from Johns Hopkins; his degree was conferred in 1879. He returned to Hopkins as associate professor in 1881 after a stay of two years in Berlin and Leipzig, and soon afterwards was promoted professor of Sanskrit and comparative philology. He was forced by ill health to retire in 1926 and was named Professor Emeritus in honor of his 45 years on the Hopkins faculty. After retirement he moved to San Francisco to be closer to his son, and he died there on June 13, 1928. In 1896 Princeton University bestowed the LL.D. degree upon him. His papers in the ''

American Journal of Philology The ''American Journal of Philology'' is a quarterly academic journal established in 1880 by the classical scholar Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve and published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. It covers the field of philology, and related areas ...

'' number a few in comparative linguistics, such as those on assimilation and adaptation in congeneric classes of words, and many valuable contributions to the interpretation of the Vedas, and he is best known as a student of the Vedas. He translated, for Max Müller's ''

Sacred Books of the East The ''Sacred Books of the East'' is a monumental 50-volume set of English translations of Asian religious texts, edited by Max Müller and published by the Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910. It incorporates the essential sacred texts ...

'', the ''Hymns of the Atharva-Veda'' (1897); contributed to the Buhler-Kielhorn ''Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde'' the section ''The Atharva-Veda and the Gopatha Brahmana'' (1899); was first to edit the ''Kauika-Sutra'' (1890), and in 1907 published, in the '' Harvard Oriental Series, A Vedic Concordance''. In 1905 he published ''Cerberus, the Dog of Hades'', a study in

comparative mythology Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.Littleton, p. 32 Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used ...

. ''The Religion of the Veda'' appeared in 1908; ''Life and Stories of the Jaina Savior Parasvanatha'' and a work on the ''Rig Veda'' in 1916.

References

External links

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Dr. Maurice Bloomfield Noted Orientalist and Philologist Dead at 73
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloomfield, Maurice American non-fiction writers American people of Austrian-Jewish descent American people of Polish-Jewish descent American philologists Austrian Jews Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States Furman University alumni Jewish American writers Johns Hopkins University faculty People from Austrian Silesia People from Bielsko Princeton University alumni Silesian emigrants to the United States Silesian Jews Yale University alumni 1855 births 1928 deaths Linguistic Society of America presidents